Cooperativismo, participación y cadenas agroproductivas. Las ferias de consumo de Lara, Venezuela

Since 1983 and with the slogan “Building here and now the world we want”, the family consumption fairs is one of the operating instances of the Organismo de Integración Cooperativa Cecosesola, a Regional Cooperative Center (CCR) associated with the Central Cooperativa Nacional de Venezuela (Central Cooperativa Nacional de Venezuela-Ceconave). Integrated by 550 workers-associates, they are the operational center of an agri-food chain that united in a network that integrates about 600 suppliers of fresh vegetables and food from several states of the country supplying 40% of the population of Barquisimeto, some 100,000 beneficiary families. Their prices are lower by 50% on average than private supermarkets, thanks to an institutional framework established on criteria of trust and other factors in and between its suppliers and its workers/associates. As an activist of the cooperativism promoted by Ceconave and as an academic, the author has known the Fairs before their constitution. This article in itself is based on a holistic vision of Cecosesola and its fairs. It is a descriptive and analytical monograph built on periodic visits and interviews with the actors as primary sources and participant observations strengthened with the analysis of the writings of the actors themselves, consultants, and other researchers interested in this experience. The document is grounded on theoretical considerations about cooperativism and the Lara State as the base territory of the fairs, and the emergence of participatory culture as a transversal axis of Cecosesola and the fairs. It analyzes the organization and their self-management, their food value chains, as well the role of their actors, with emphasis on fair trade criteria, meetings and consensus decisions, funds as solidarity mechanisms, and fairs as a safe market for producers. Finally, a reflection on the cultural and institutional transformation achieved was carried out, and a summary of the impacts of the fairs as a social balance was presented.