Global food supply chain resilience assessment: A case in the United Kingdom

The food industry plays a significant role in food supply. However, it is increasingly facing a significant number of risks to tackle. This article provides insight into sources and quantification of risk, which can restrict food operations and supply chain performance. Certainly, risks imposed by today's constantly changing global environment makes it imperative for food and agribusiness firms to develop purposeful proactive and predictive risk management for their global supply chains. We proposed the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model to analyze sources of risks attached to the focal firm's global food operations and supply chain. The identified risks were from a review of relevant literature, expert opinions from the focal firm supply chain C‐level executive, and consultants in the food industry. We grouped the identified risks into seven categories and discussed the risk mitigation strategies. We validated the proposed model using a case study involving a focal food and agribusiness firm with global presence. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Food is one of the most traded goods, and the conflict in Ukraine, one of the European breadbaskets, has triggered a significant additional disruption in the global food supply chains after the COVID-19 impact. The disruption to food output, supply chains, availability, and affordability could have a long-standing impact. As a result, the availability and supply of a wide range of food raw materials and finished food products are under threat, and global markets have seen recent increases in food prices. Furthermore, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has adversely affected food supply chains, with significant effects on production, sourcing, manufacturing, processing, logistics, and significant shifts in demand between nations reliant on imports from Ukraine. This paper aims to analyze the impacts of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the effectiveness and responsiveness of the global food supply chains. A PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approach, including grey literature, was deployed to investigate six key areas of the food supply chains that would be impacted most due to the ongoing war. Findings include solutions and strategies to mitigate supply chain impacts such as alternative food raw materials, suppliers and supply chain partners supported by technological innovations to ensure food safety and quality in warlike situations.

The damaging economic, political, and diplomatic effects of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022 have not been confined to just continental Europe. The highly interconnected and interdependent nature of the global economy means that other regions are similarly, or even more negatively, affected by any outbreak of hostilities in states like Ukraine that prove integral parts of global food and energy supply chains. This is particularly the case with the South Asian region that has a predominance of developing economies already struggling to provide adequate basic services to their citizens, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and other climate change related natural disasters like floods and wildfire. The aim of this paper is to analyse the ongoing economic and geopolitical effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine in South Asia, highlighting how sustained disruptions in global food and energy supply chains exacerbate existing insecurity in developing economies. The corollary to this economic insecurity is increased inter-regional tensions as individual states compete against each other for increasingly scarce and costlier food and energy resources.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented stress to food supply chains, pointing to weaknesses in the labour, processing, transport and logistics spheres, as well as significant changes in demand. Food supply chains have shown considerable resilience in the face of such stress. Monitoring of the food sector during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that the effects of COVID-19 on food supply, demand and access are interlinked processes and have a complex impact on food systems. In addition, high-value food supply chains in developed countries are even more complex, so countries need to respond quickly to restore them and also develop mechanisms that balance business and public interests and protect farmers and food business workers during future potential pandemic crises. The research aims to identify the main demand and supply side factors that affect the resilience of local and global food supply chains during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as assess the resilience of the supply chain for arable crops during the COVID-19 crisis in Latvia, identifying the main risk factors. The research found that arable crop farmers were relatively less affected by the COVID-19 crisis than other agricultural employees. The impact of the crisis was larger on the crop processing industry than on the other industries, and the main risk factors related to changes in demand and the industry’s dependence on imported raw materials and the successful operation of export markets. Based on an in-depth risk analysis, the research developed recommendations for policy makers and actors in the agri-food chain that would improve the resilience of local (domestic) participants of the arable crop food supply chain in Latvia.

The article examines the primary meanings of 'supply chain adaptability' and 'supply chain resilience'. The aim is to assess the resilience and adaptability of retail food supply chains during the declaration of martial law in Ukraine. Supply chain adaptation is focused on responding to specific changes or challenges, while supply chain resilience encompasses a broader range of measures and strategies to ensure the continuity and efficiency of the supply chain during stressful or crisis situations, such as times of civil emergency. Supply chain adaptation is the process of modifying supply chains to address specific challenges or conditions, such as changes in market conditions, technological progress, or changes in consumer demand. In situations where martial law is in effect, supply chain adaptation may include changing suppliers, revising logistics processes, seeking alternative sources of supply, and taking other measures to ensure continuity of the supply of goods and services. Supply chain resilience refers to the capacity of a supply chain to endure challenging situations and sustain operations, even in the face of adverse impacts, such as military conflict. It is important to acknowledge that supply chains can face diverse challenges, and it is crucial to maintain efficiency and productivity, irrespective of external circumstances. The main problems of implementing resilience and adaptability of the food supply chain in Ukraine during the declaration of martial law are identified to ensure the reliability and food security of the country in the context of military conflict. It suggests that studying the resilience of the food supply chain is crucial for ensuring its smooth and efficient functioning, particularly during times of crisis and stress, to maintain the country's food security. Under such conditions, there may be a risk of supply disruptions, transportation issues, reduced production, and higher food prices. It is important to consider developing and implementing strategies and measures to ensure stability and food security under martial law. This could include crisis response planning, the exploration of alternative supply routes by retailers, the organization of food reserves, and the coordination of efforts between various sectors and governing bodies. The methodology proposed by the author assesses the factors that affect the resilience of food supply chains during the declaration of martial law in Ukraine.

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the complex global food supply chains (GFSCs) which has drastically affected the essential flow of food from the farms and producers to the final consumers. The COVID-19 outbreak has served as a great lesson for the food businesses and companies to re-strategize toward the post-COVID-19 era. This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on food security and global food supply chains using the two countries (Canada and the United States) in North America as the case studies and provides appropriate strategy or framework to build smarter and resilience food supply chains for post-COVID-19 era.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a general review of the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on food security and disruptions of the GFSCs. This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review to have a complete understanding of the study, identify the research problem and missing gaps in literature and to formulate appropriate research questions. This study uses two countries from North America (Canada and the US) as case studies by analyzing the available open data from Statistics Canada and some recent studies conducted on food insecurity in the US. Finally, based on the findings, a proposed approach or framework was presented.FindingsThe findings from this study establishes that COVID-19 pandemic has greater impacts on the food security and GFSC due to disruption of the food supply chain leading to increase food insecurity in Canada and the US. The findings clearly show how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the GFSC in the following ways – poor economy, shortage of farm worker, limitation to food accessibility, restriction in the transportation of farm commodities, changes in demand of consumers, shutdown of food production facilities, uncertainty of food quality and safety, food trade policies restriction, delays in transportation of food products, etc. The main findings of this study show that food and beverages sector needs to re-strategize, re-shape and re-design their food supply chains with post-COVID-19 resilience approach in mind. As a result, this study presents a proposed approach or framework to build a smarter and resilience GFSCs in the post-COVID-19 era. The findings in this study highlights the way the proposed framework provide solutions to the identified problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic in affecting the GFSC.Originality/valueThe contribution of this study towards the existing body of knowledge in food security and GFSC is in the form of a proposed approach or framework for building smarter and resilience GFSC that would assist the key players in the food industry to respond better and faster to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including post-COVID-19 era.

Reducing post-harvest food losses through innovative collaboration: Insights from the Colombian and Mexican avocado supply chains

In 2017, IBM announced a collaboration with a few major food producers and retailers, including inter alia Dole, Nestle, Tyson Foods, Kroger, Unilever, and Walmart, to leverage disruptive technologies such as distributed ledger technologies (DLTs, colloquially known as “blockchain”) to address imminent governance challenges along the global food supply chain. Walmart has further required its upstream suppliers of leafy greens to use the cloud- and blockchain-based “IBM Food Trust” platform by September 2019. Similarly, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations launched the “Building Block” program since 2017. Using iris-scanning technologies and blockchains, this program helped Syrian refugees verify their identities and directly deduct what they spend from the amount of aid they receive from the WFP. Initiatives as such have the potential to help retailers and consumers to pinpoint sources of contamination at times of outbreaks or provide production details and quality certifications (e.g. product origin, farm history, processing and shipping information, and fair trade or safety/sustainability standards). Blockchains can also be combined with smart contract systems or other AI techniques to increase efficiency, simplify transactions, ensure compliance and security, and promote trade facilitation across borders. While the far-reaching ramifications of blockchain technologies in the financial area (such as fintech and cryptocurrency issues) have been documented in media, literature, and political arenas in recent years, the opportunities as well as challenges posed by blockchain to food safety, traceability, and sustainable development have not been fully examined. The benefit of applying blockchain technologies in the global food supply chain seems salient: transforming paper-based documents into blockchain-enabled identity can, generating a high level of transparency and data integrity, enabling smaller farmers to bypass middlemen in crops trading and cash transfers, and providing efficient and cost-effective way to manage the production system. However, blockchainizing the food supply chain may pose legal and policy challenges to both developed and developing (especially underdeveloped) countries in different ways, which may in turn undermine the overall legitimacy and accountability of such techno-regulatory mechanism. This paper therefore aims to explore the potential of blockchain technologies in revolutionizing the global food supply chain in terms of food safety, traceability, and sustainable development. More specifically, this paper will examine concrete cases in which blockchains have effectively transformed how we conventionally think about food safety, certification, and traceability (which has by and large been manual and paper-based, and therefore a labor-intense and time-consuming). At the same time, when all participants in the global supply chain are being connected and required to upload their data to the cloud-based system and generate a transparent, traceable, immutable, and shared record of production details, quality specifications and origin facts, sustainability and fair trade certifications, and storage, import/export, and logistics information, the forms and substances of conventional food law (as well as data protection law, anti-trust law, and trade law) may need to be re-conceptualized. In this light, this paper will also endeavor to locate the possible barriers and challenges to “blockchainizing” food law at national and international levels, and offer recommendations for leveraging such technology in an effective, efficient, and responsible manner.

Food supply chain resilience has become a priority for policymakers in recent years. Prompted by several systemic disruptions and the increased likelihood of future shocks, significant attention and public financial investment have been devoted to preparing supply chains to be more able to absorb shocks and more nimbly respond in the future. Food and agricultural supply chains have been particularly scrutinized due to widespread shortages and food price inflation of key staples in recent years. Varied perspectives have emerged about the factors that contribute to the resiliency of food supply chains and the interventions that will be most effective. This article reviews the perspectives on food supply chain resilience generally. Furthermore, we attempt to synthesize the methodologies that have been used to study resilience and offer some guidance for economists studying the topic moving forward.

Food supply chains are highly distributed, collaborative, heterogeneous, diverse, and varied by product, process, and destination. The global food supply chain (FSC) objective is to maintain a good balance between supply and demand and move products from producer to market. However, sustainability of the FSC has become a major concern as limited resources and increasing population pressure threaten its existence. Supply chain management is an important issue for FSC due to information flow throughout the supply chain. Industry-specific characteristics and extensive integration among multiple actors in an entire supply chain exacerbate this situation. The agri-food sector has one of the lowest rates of information technology penetration for innovation. Over the past thirty years, information and communication technology (ICT) has been introduced into the agricultural and food sectors, helping to improve food production and transportation. However, there are various challenges, such as transparency, accountability, food scandal, trust, and inefficient information flow, that the food supply chain is still facing in reaching sustainable goals. The complexity of food supply systems and the opportunities and challenges faced regarding desired sustainability performance need to be examined to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Blockchain is an emerging and disruptive digital technology that can transform governance and sustainability in integrated food supply chains. It provides a transparent, immutable, and traceable ledger that minimizes anomalies and information fraud, making it a potential solution for designing a transparent, traceable food system. Blockchain can potentially improve the sustainability of the food supply chain by providing a transparent traceability system. Food traceability is important for managing the food supply chain and protecting public health. It allows quick and accurate traceability of contaminated food that causes foodborne illness outbreaks, leading to the withdrawal of contaminated food from markets. Blockchain can achieve traceability, provenance tracking, transparency, and reduce environmental impact in the food supply chain. It also helps in achieving sustainable development goals set by the UN. However, there is no scientific research on blockchain’s contribution to achieving these goals in the food supply chain. Therefore, this article presents a systematic literature review and thematic analysis to study the relationship between FSC sustainability, blockchain, and sustainable development goals.

Blockchain: a framework for membership and access

PurposeCorona Virus Disease (Covid-19) is a global pandemic that emerged at the end of 2019 and caused disruptions in global supply chains, particularly in the food supply chains that exposed the vulnerability of today’s food supply chain in a major disruption which provided a unique research opportunity. This review explores the current research direction for food supply chain resilience and identifies gaps for future research in preparing for future major global pandemics.Design/methodology/approachThis article presents a review of food supply chain resilience followed a systematic literature review of the business and management-based studies related to the food supply chain in Covid-19 published between December 2019 and December 2021 to identify the immediate issues and responses that need to be addressed in the event of future disruptions in food supply chains due to new global health threats.FindingsThe study revealed the need for more literature on food supply chain resilience, particularly resilience to a major global pandemic. The study also uncovered the sequence of events in a major pandemic and identified some strategies for building resilience to potential future risks of such an event.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this study are apparent. Firstly, the selection of databases is not comprehensive. Due to time limitations, authoritative publishers such as Springer, Emerald, Wiley and Taylor & Francis were not selected. Secondly, a single author completed the literature quality testing and text analysis, possibly reducing the credibility of the results due to subjective bias. Thirdly, the selected literature are the studies published during the immediate event of Covid-19, and before January 2022, other research studies may have been completed but were still in the state of auditing at this time.Originality/valueThis paper is the first study that provides a detailed classification of the immediate challenges to the food supply chain faced in both upstream and downstream nodes during a major global disruption. For researchers, this clearly shows the immediate difficulties faced at each node of the food supply chain, which provides research topics for future studies.

The Coronavirus outbreak has brought a global health emergency with a newfound domestic and international trade disruption such as restrictions on imports and exports of major food commodities, loss of lives, closure of various essential institutions, and the likes. With the spread of COVID-19 around the world, the food and agricultural sector have experienced a negative downturn with an immense labor loss, inadequate distribution of food inputs around the world. Thus, the question arises that to what extent can the food supply chain remain resilient to the effects of the pandemic? And, what are the immediate and lasting resolutions? Importantly, the resilience of the food supply chain is critical to mankind's survival. In this paper, we highlighted the main challenges faced by the resilience of the global food supply chain. We also present policies and suggestions that focus on mitigating the impact of the pandemic on food production and distribution systems.

This review paper examines the technological advancements in food supply chain management, drawing a comparative analysis between the United States (USA) and Africa. The global food supply chain plays a critical role in ensuring the efficient and effective distribution of food products from producers to consumers. In recent years, technological innovations have revolutionized various aspects of the food supply chain, impacting areas such as production, distribution, traceability, and sustainability. The paper begins by providing an overview of the key technological trends in food supply chain management, encompassing the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics. These innovations have the potential to enhance transparency, reduce waste, improve traceability, and optimize overall supply chain efficiency. A comparative analysis is then conducted, focusing on the disparities and similarities in the adoption and implementation of these technologies between the USA and Africa. The USA, as a technologically advanced region, has witnessed extensive integration of cutting-edge technologies in its food supply chain. This includes the utilization of IoT sensors for real-time monitoring, blockchain for transparent and secure transactions, and AI for predictive analytics and demand forecasting. In contrast, Africa, characterized by a diverse range of economies and infrastructural challenges, faces unique opportunities and obstacles in embracing advanced technologies in its food supply chain. The review explores initiatives and case studies that highlight the successful integration of technology in various African countries, shedding light on the potential for leapfrogging certain stages of traditional supply chain development. The discussion encompasses the role of government policies, private sector involvement, and international collaborations in shaping the technological landscape of food supply chain management in both regions. Furthermore, attention is given to the social and economic implications of technological advancements, emphasizing the need for inclusive approaches that address the specific needs of diverse communities. This review provides valuable insights into the current state of technological advancements in food supply chain management, offering a comparative perspective between the USA and Africa. By understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by each region, stakeholders can develop targeted strategies to enhance the resilience, sustainability, and inclusivity of global food supply chains in the face of evolving technological landscapes.

The different pandemics that humanity had experienced, such as the Spanish Flu, Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu, HIV/AIDS, SARS, Ebola, and Swine Flu, had a great impact on the global economy, the environment , social lifestyle, agricultural sector, manufacturing and service industries, hospitality and tourism, education sector, aviation industry etc. Currently, humanity is facing another pandemic, the infection of the new coronavirus known as COVID-19. The objective of this paper is to present a theoretical review of supply chain disruption due to COVID-19 impact, analyze and discuss the effects of this turbulence in global food supply chain management. For the analysis, various contents from published articles, blogs, reports, newspaper publications have been collected. There was sufficient evidence to affirm that the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 has an important effect on global supply chain management process. The purpose of this paper was to highlight the reasons of disruption in global supply chain management especially in food supply chain management. This paper also has depicted the long term impacts of COVID-19 in food supply chain management. By analyzing various documents, few policies and steps were suggested to apply for managing global supply chain management in post pandemic era. Finally it was suggested to implement digitalization in the platform of block chain technology to build-up a robust and sustainable global supply chain management to handle any such situation arise in the future. Keywords: Supply chain management, COVID-19, Global food supply chain (FSCs), Digitalization, Block chain technology DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-17-08 Publication date: June 30th 2020