Abstract
The present study is based on transaction cost economics and supply chain management to analyze how the adoption of supply chain management practices in the Mexican avocado industry reduces the transaction costs between producers and packers. Two sources of information are used: interviews from different stakeholders and reviews of documents. Conclusions show that the adoption of three practices, product standardization, supplier partnership, and information exchange, has been a solution when challenges such as enhancing quality, obtaining reliable supply, and coordinating supply and demand conditions, are faced in a supply chain.
Highlights
Analysis of agrifood supply chains originating from developing countries has focused on aspects such as quality and safety of products and reliability of supply (Reardon and Barrett, 2000; Ruben et al, 2007)
We propose to present an analysis of the technical and organizational solutions packers in the Mexican avocado industry have introduced to deal with the main supply chain challenges
The current research makes use of two theoretical approaches for explaining technical and organizational solutions in the Mexican avocado chain, Transaction Cost Economics and Supply Chain Management. tce, as developed by Williamson (1979; 1985) and others, explains that transaction costs are the costs of undertaking an exchange between buyers and sellers, and which could be too high under certain conditions (Grover and Malhotra, 2003)
Summary
Analysis of agrifood supply chains originating from developing countries has focused on aspects such as quality and safety of products and reliability of supply (Reardon and Barrett, 2000; Ruben et al, 2007). Particular supply chain management practices, such as product standardization, supplier partnership, and information can be used to enhance quality, guarantee safety, and improve coordination between supply and demand conditions (Van der Vorst, Da Silva and Trienekens, 2007). Under the relevance of these practices, we pose the following question: how have the supply chain management practices implemented by the packers facilitated to enhance product quality, create reliable supply and improve the planning of packaging and distribution processes? To address this question, we propose to present an analysis of the technical and organizational solutions packers in the Mexican avocado industry have introduced to deal with the main supply chain challenges.
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