LAUSR

Abstract There is rising interest in collaboration among supply chain partners in food and fibre supply chain management studies. In organic and fair-trade chains, collaboration is rooted in both principles and current practices. A tool for assessing collaboration in the food and fibre sector has not been developed to date. To fill this gap a collaboration index has been adapted to the Egyptian organic and fair trade cotton supply chain. A factor analysis has been performed to this end. Two factors emerged within each of the three constructs defining the collaboration index: information sharing (price information and logistics), decision synchronization (exception management and general management) incentive alignment (risk sharing and technical support). The study contributes to defining a method for designing specific collaboration indexes in different food and fibre chains. The index provided relevant context-related information supporting the collaboration strategies in the Egyptian organic cotton chain.