Supply Chain Management Practices in an Alternative Food Network: The First Organic Marketplace of Turkey
A. Yonca Demir

Abstract
With a climate and biodiversity very suitable for organic agriculture, Turkey’s organic sector developed in response to external demand, in particular to demand from Europe. The domestic market remained underdeveloped until the first marketplace solely for certified organic products has been established in 2006. In this paper, we study this pioneering organic marketplace from the perspectives of supply chain management paying special attention to the network structure and critical activities. Special inventory handling approaches such as cross-docking are applied and transportation is a major issue. The meeting of the consumers, farmers and middlemen facilitates the formation of collaborations and the development of strategic alliances. We explore the dynamics of the marketplace with a non-governmental organization as the chain captain. The reasons leading to and consequences of this specific governance mechanism are discussed. In our study, we use (i) sales and participation data, (ii) unstructured interviews with farmers, consumers, middlemen, and NGO officials, and (iii) participant observation.We also highlight research questions arising from the network of farmers, processors and retailers.

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