Sustainable demand-supply chain: an innovative approach for improving sustainability in agrifood chains

Abstract

Increasing price volatility and the decrease in both raw material prices and farmers’ incomes, all underline the depths of the French agricultural crisis. How should the relationships within agrifood supply chains be envisaged in order to obtain greater sustainability combined with better added-value distribution? This article introduces a new approach for supply chain organization and management: the sustainable demand-supply chain. The paper mobilizes both management, organization and innovation literatures, together with a case study based on data from farmers, cooperatives and distributors in the pork sector. The originality of the paper lies in its modelization of sustainable demand-supply chains. The results show that new relationships need to be implemented between all stakeholders, including consumers – both to share information and to define their new added-value distribution. The results identify the key points of this new supply chain coordination and indicate policy recommendations for organizational innovations.