Containerized Grain Logistics Processes for Implementing Sustainable Identity Preservation

Abstract

Grains are often exposed to unprotected environment during post-harvest logistics processes. Since grains are usually accommodated in silos on farms, when importing grains, they are transported to silos or yards at ports by heavy vehicles, and imported to another country (or region) by bulk carriers. Thereafter the grains are stored at silos and transported in bulk or tone-sacks by heavy vehicles. The grain quality often deteriorates due to unprotected storage and transportation environment through the logistics processes, whereby they become affected by insects, pests, rancidity, discoloration, and so on. This study examines a containerized grain logistics contributing to well-known identity preservation, analyzes the applicability in terms of logistics cost, and discusses potential effects on sustainability improvement by tracing and preserving the grains for a longer duration in well-protected spaces during the logistics processes. This study introduces the necessity of preservation containers to implement the containerized grain logistics to prevent quality deterioration. A comparative cost analysis is conducted to investigate the effect of the containerized grain logistics. According to the comparative analysis, conventional bulk logistics has benefits in shipping (76.2%) and storage costs (89%), whereas the containerized logistics has economic viability in tariff (23.2%) and infrastructure costs (51.2%).