Evaluating barriers to green supply chain redesign and implementation of related practices in the West Africa cashew industry

Abstract

Cashew consumption has been increasing globally, but environmental issues through the whole cashew supply chain, from production, processing and transportation, have been raised. Thus, green supply chain redesign has been put forward but implementation of related practices faces many barriers. Using the case of the Africa cashew industry, which produces over half of global raw cashew nuts but only process less than 10% to kernel, this paper systematically identifies these barriers considering stakeholders through the whole cashew supply chain. Based on evaluation of four experts, results by grey Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory reveal that successful green supply chain redesign implementation needs two elementary efforts by kernel distributors. One is increased collaboration with multi-tier suppliers (producer organizations and processors) and the other is to get strategic support from industry bodies, non-governmental organizations and development agencies. Additionally, in the short-term, kernel distributors need to overcome three key operational barriers, lack of internal top-level management commitment, lack of integrated management information and traceability systems, and uncertainty of economic benefits. Furthermore, barriers such as difficulties to assess environmental sustainability performance and lack of consumer demand for green cashew should be addressed in the long-term. This study contributes to identify barriers to the successful implementation of green supply chain redesign from perspectives of both the focal enterprise and the whole supply chain. A robust multi-criteria decision making method further reveals the most important and fundamental barriers which can offer decision support for kernel distributors and policymakers in the cashew industry.