This workshop analyses globalization versus regionalization tendencies in food supply chains at the macro level.

Globalization
The first part of the workshop discusses what internationalisation strategies food companies pursue: trade, FDI, partnerships, et cetera, and sketches what patterns may be observed at the macro level. The analysis will indicate whether the food supply chain becomes a truly global business or internationalises within trade blocks such as the EU and NAFTA. The influence of bilateral versus multilateral trade agreements on these processes will be discussed.

The analysis also indicates what these developments imply for the distribution of production and processing activities over the world. Where do food processing and food retail companies source their supplies? What activities may be expected to disappear from OECD countries? What activities remain in OECD countries and replace activities flowing to developing coun-tries? The workshop also indicates the importance of international labour division. How many links are there in food supply chains and what does this imply for trade patterns? The analysis will also indicate the drivers behind these processes: transport and storage technology, ICT and logistics.

Regionalization
The second part of the workshop assesses the performance of regional supply chains, for in-stance the importance of the Comté cheese supply chain. This part identifies the actors in-volved in developing regional supply chains: federal and local governments, farmers, food processors and food retail. The goals pursued by the actors involved are identified and the organisation of regional supply chains depicted. How do business strategies and government policies with respect to regional food supply chains come about? What is the role of supply chain co-ordination and information mechanisms such as labels and regional indications in developing regional supply chains? The second presentation will indicate whether the market share of regional products increases and what the impact is of regional supply chains on the performance of farmers, food processors and small, medium and large size food retailers. Fi-nally, the workshop identifies successful and less successful examples of regional food supply chains and draw lessons from these successes and failures. Can one learn from experiences in other countries or are there simply differences between consumer preferences and supply chain organisation in e.g. France and Italy on the one hand and the Netherlands on the other hand? Finally, this part addresses the relation between regional and global supply chains.

Speakers:
Arjen van Witteloostuijn    University of Antwerp, Belgium 
Christine Avelin                 Ministry of Agriculture, France