The compatibility of the triple-a agri-food supply chain with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The triple-a supply chain model focuses on ensuring the agility, adaptability, and alignment of the supply chains in order to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. These characteristics have extended the supply chain desired traits from just being cost-effective and responsive. The agri-food supply chains include a diverse range of products, which differentiate in various aspects such as processing, life-cycle, seasonality, vulnerability, etc. These characteristics lead to different supply chain typologies and various requirements for synergies among stakeholders in order to meet these objectives. The situation gets even more complicated when sustainability objectives enter into the supply chain design and operation process. The scope of this paper is to analyze and assess the compatibility of the triple-a agri-food supply chain with the UN sustainable development goals and outline the interventions that could facilitate decision-making concerning the design and operation of sustainable agri-food supply chains.