Formal labor in the beef production chain

Abstract

The beef production chain in Brazil is highly representative in the labour market, and it is responsible for the employability of thousands of people. The final product is destined to meet domestic and foreign demand, and the increase in production levels observed in recent years has helped control the price indices and the country’s trade balance. However, the conflicts between the different links in the production chain are a problem that undermines the good progress of the sector and the quality of products available to final consumers. In this context, considering the different authors that point to the importance of the educational level and the professional experience of the agents for the good performance of the production chain, this study aims to verify how wage subsidies occur in the beef production chain in Brazil, dividing into three distinct subsystems: raw material production, industrialization and services. The results show that incentives occur in all three subsystems, but with an emphasis on the distribution subsystem, and are responsible for the greatest stimulus in the accumulation of human capital and professional experience. Also, it was visualized that the subsystem of raw material production was less interested in the accumulation of these two attributes, which can be a bottleneck for the good performance of the production chain, due to the subsystem of raw material be greater than the sum of the other subsystems.