| Since the 1970s, there has been a broad shift from arm‘s length to long-term strategic alliance procurement practices across nations and industries. This has happened for sound commercial reasons. Peculiarities of agricultural production have slowed this shift in many food industry sectors, but it is now proceeding apace – driven primarily by rapidly globalising supermarket chains. In most Australian agri-food sectors, few firms have the scale or level of sophistication that would make them attractive strategic alliance partners either for international food retailers or for their category managers. The reasons for this include a combination of past government failures (inappropriate policies) and failures or inefficiencies in a range of information... |
