Resilience Of Food Supply Chains Research Articles

Diversifying agrifood systems to ensure global food security following the Russia–Ukraine crisis

The recent Russia–Ukraine conflict has raised significant concerns about global food security, leaving many countries with restricted access to imported staple food crops, particularly wheat and sunflower oil, sending food prices soaring with other adverse consequences in the food supply chain. This detrimental effect is particularly prominent for low-income countries relying on grain imports, with record-high food prices and inflation affecting their livelihoods. This review discusses the role of Russia and Ukraine in the global food system and the impact of the Russia–Ukraine conflict on food security. It also highlights how diversifying four areas of agrifood systems—markets, production, crops, and technology can contribute to achieving food supply chain resilience for future food security and sustainability.

Market structure and resilience of food supply chains under extreme events

AbstractRecent extreme events and the disruptions they caused have made food supply chain resilience a key topic for researchers and policymakers. This paper provides input into these discussions by evaluating the efficiency and resilience properties of the leading policy proposals. We develop a conceptual model of a prototype agricultural supply chain, parameterize the model based on the empirical literature, and conduct simulations to assess the impacts on resilience and economic welfare of four key policy proposals: (i) intensified antitrust enforcement to improve market competition, (ii) subsidization of entry of additional processing capacity, (iii) prevention of price spikes through anti‐price‐gouging laws, and (iv) diversification of production and processing across multiple regions. Results show that some of the policies have potential to improve supply‐chain resilience, but their impacts depend on the existing market structure, and resilience gains often come at the cost of reduced efficiency.

Blockchain adoption or contingent sourcing? Advancing food supply chain resilience in the post-pandemic era

In the post-pandemic era, food supply chains and firms therein are facing unprecedented severe challenges, because once infection is detected, numerous products must be recalled or abandoned, and both suppliers and retailers in the supply chain suffer enormous loss. To survive under the pandemic, retailers have adopted different sourcing strategies, such as contingent sourcing, which, in turn, affect the upstream suppliers and hence the resilience of the whole supply chain. With the rapid development of digital technologies, retailers nowadays can utilize blockchain as a reliable and efficient way to reduce product risk and hence advance the resilience of food supply chains by improving product traceability and inspection accuracy, and making sourcing transparent. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic model to investigate the interrelation between the retailer’s decisions on blockchain adoption and sourcing strategies. We consider that a retailer originally orders from a risky supplier while conducting an imperfect inspection to detect infected products before selling. The retailer may speculatively keep on ordering from the risky supplier or adopt contingent sourcing by ordering from an alternative safe supplier. The retailer also has an option to implement blockchain to improve the inspection accuracy and product traceability. We derive the optimal retail prices under different sourcing strategies with and without blockchain adoption and then analyze the incentives for sourcing strategy and blockchain adoption. Then, we identify the conditions of an all-win situation for food retailer, supplier, supply chain resilience, and consumers with/without government subsidy. Finally, we extend to consider the situation that some consumers have health-safety concerns and preferences for blockchain adoption.

How do food supply chain performance measures contribute to sustainable corporate performance during disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic emergency?

PurposeThis study aims to the development of the scale of supply chain performance measures (SCPMs), food supply chain resilience (FSCS) and sustainable corporate performance (SCP) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging market. Based on this purpose, the study examines the relationships between SCPMs and SCP by exploring the mediating role of FSCS in emerging markets.Design/methodology/approachBased on a comprehensive literature review on the SCPMs, FSCS and SCP, the author evaluates the nexus of these constructs on disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency in an emerging market. The article follows a quantitative approach. A total of 567 valid responses from managers at senior and middle levels were received and used for data analysis. The Smart PLS version 3.3.2 was employed to analyse Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to investigate the relationships between constructs and latent variables.FindingsThis study provides some theoretical contributions to expand the extant literature on the domain of SCPMs. First, the findings determine that multidimensional measures of flexibility, diversity, agility, inventory efficiency, redundancy and robustness are appropriate for measuring food SC performance in disruptions during the COVID-19 emergency. Besides, this study enriches the existing literature on SC disruption by providing extensive empirical evidence on SCPMs in disruptions during the COVID-19 emergency. Finally, this research provides an integrated empirical model that explores the link between the identified food SCPMs to FSCS and SCP.Originality/valueThe contributions may be of interest to business practitioners, business leaders and academics. In addition, this study provides empirical evidence to demonstrate that food SC performance, as measured by these measures, is strongly related to the firm's food supply chain resilience. This is the novel contribution of this study to the current literature on food SC management. Furthermore, this study provides further empirical evidence demonstrating the partial mediating role of the firm's food supply chain resilience in the nexus between food SC performance and SCP. The unique contribution of this study is an extension of the body of knowledge of SC management literature from a comprehensive approach by providing a proven set of performance measures of SC management to which it can drive SC resilience and SCP for food manufacturing SMEs in an emerging economy that hardly found in the current literature.

The role of wholesale markets in food supply chain resilience

The role of wholesale markets in food supply chain resilience

A Systematic Literature Review Food Supply Chain Resilience: Stakeholder, strategic, and regional analyses and future directions

A Systematic Literature Review Food Supply Chain Resilience: Stakeholder, strategic, and regional analyses and future directions

Rapid Review of Government Issued Documents Relevant to Mitigation of COVID-19 in the U.S. Food Manufacturing and Processing Industry

We surveyed publicly available records published by the U.S. government between the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and 30 September 2021 to identify documents containing resources or guidelines about COVID-19 mitigation relevant to the U.S. food manufacturing and processing industry. Among 35 documents identified and reviewed (including 34 from government agencies and 1 from a relevant professional association), we extracted 19 categories of mitigation strategies covering the themes of employee biosafety, surveillance, vaccination, social distancing, and worker education. We concluded that the priority of COVID-19 mitigation in the food processing industry was to protect the health and safety of industry workers while maintaining food supply chain resilience to minimize disturbance in the food market and avoid food crises. This collated list of the identified documents and their comprehensive review will (i) aid researchers and public health workers in interpreting the potential impacts of the recommended mitigations on the epidemiology of the disease among workers in the food processing industry and (ii) help the food processing industry sort out the most essential strategies to use during a pandemic.

Exploring Food Supply Chain Trends in the COVID-19 Era: A Bibliometric Review

Recently, the food supply chain (FSC) has been severely disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting the vital flow of food products from farmers and producers to the ultimate consumers at risk. Furthermore, due to the pandemic, several food organizations have been prompted to rethink their strategies for the future. Although the literature on FSC research in the COVID-19 era is increasing, no attempt has been made to summarize this stream of research using bibliometric techniques. This paper fills this knowledge gap and looks at the current scholarly discourse around the FSC and COVID-19. Applying bibliometric techniques, 287 journal articles were extracted from Scopus and analyzed to determine the temporal evolution of FSC research, the most productive journals, researchers, countries, and the most relevant keywords and publications. To construct a keyword co-occurrence network and categorize the relevant literature, we used the computer program VOSviewer. The findings demonstrate the rapid expansion of FSC research during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the top authors, publications, and nations for scientific output were also determined. Keyword co-occurrence network and detailed qualitative analysis both illustrate that FSC research revolves around six main themes: the impact of COVID-19 on the FSC and agriculture, FSC resilience, food waste and insecurity, fisheries and aquaculture, blockchain technology, and governance and innovation. This study represents the first effort to map worldwide FSC research in the COVID-19 era and draw on a comprehensive collection of journal articles and bibliometric approaches. It offers academics, practitioners, and decision-makers a snapshot of the state of the art in the FSC field and points to where further research is needed.

Resilient reverse logistics with blockchain technology in sustainable food supply chain management during COVID‐19

AbstractCOVID‐19, which is a global problem, affects the all supply chains throughout the world. One of the supply chains most affected by COVID‐19 is food supply chains. Since the sustainable food supply chain processes are complex and vulnerable in terms of product variety, it has been negatively affected by the operational effects of COVID‐19. While the problems experienced in the supply chain processes and raw material constraints caused stops in production, the importance of new business models and production approaches came to the fore. One of the issues of increasing importance is the adoption of reverse logistics activities in sustainable food supply chains and increasing the resilience of food supply chains by integrating blockchain technology into processes. However, adapting blockchain technology to increase the resilience of reverse logistics activities in the food supply chain has advantages as well as risks that need to be considered. Therefore, it is aimed to determine these risks by using fuzzy synthetic evaluation method for eliminating the risks of blockchain adaptation for flexible reverse logistics in food supply chains to increase resiliency. The novelty of this study is that besides discussing about the benefits of BC‐T, it is to identify the risks it can create, to eliminate these risks and to guide the establishment of resilience in reverse logistics activities of SFSCs. According to results, the risks with the highest value among the subrisks are determined as data security risks. Data management risks are calculated as the risk with the highest value.

Optimization Based Modeling for the Food Supply Chain's Resilience to Outbreaks

Scant research focuses on the resiliency of food supply chain networks to outbreaks, despite the estimated 600 million global foodborne illnesses annually. Outbreaks that cross country, state and provincial lines are virulent due to the number of people they can affect and difficulty controlling them. Research is needed on food supply chain networks, which are not well-characterized in relation to foodborne illnesses or generally. This paper introduces the United States Food, Energy, and State Transportation (US-FEAST) model and demonstrates its applicability via analysis of a hypothetical demand shock resulting from multistate food contamination. US-FEAST is an optimization-based model across all fifty states with yearly timesteps to 2030. It is a framework integrating food system data from multiple individual data sources. To calibrate, we develop a bilevel optimization routine to generate synthetic, state-level data and provide estimates of otherwise unavailable data at the intersections of the food and transportation systems. The results of US-FEAST elucidate potential heterogenous state-level variations in response, regional changes in food flows, vulnerabilities in the supply chain, and implications for food system resilience. While the generated data and scenarios are not empirical evidence, they provide insights to aid in planning by projecting outcomes and intervention effects. Our results estimate a 23% beef production decrease and 4% price decrease provide a road map toward data needs for quantifying food system resilience to foodborne illness. US-FEAST and its framework may have global utility for studying food safety in national and international food supply chain networks.

Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dietary Consumption among Chinese Residents: Evidence from Provincial-Level Panel Data

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected people’s daily lives, including their dietary behaviors. Using a panel data set of 31 provinces from 2015 to 2020, this study employed two-way fixed effects (FE) models to examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on dietary consumption among Chinese residents. The results showed that the COVID-19 pandemic positively affected residents’ consumption of grain, eggs, dairy, and white meat (poultry and aquatic products), while it had a negative effect on individuals’ red meat consumption in both urban and rural areas. These results were robust to different measures of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the number of confirmed cases, suspect cases, and dead cases. Comparatively, the changes in food consumption induced by the COVID-19 pandemic were more prominent for Chinese residents who lived in rural areas than urban areas. In addition, compared to their counterparts, the dietary consequences of the pandemic were more pronounced for residents living in the eastern region and regions with a high old-age dependency ratio and low illiteracy rate. Furthermore, the estimation results of the quantile regression model for panel data suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic had relatively larger impacts on the dietary consumption of Chinese residents at lower quantiles of food consumption compared with those at higher quantiles. Overall, the results of this study suggested that Chinese residents had a healthier diet after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We discussed possible mechanisms, including health awareness, income, food supply and prices, and other behavioral changes during COVID-19 (e.g., physical activity and cooking). To further improve residents’ dietary behaviors and health, our study proposed relevant measures, such as increasing residents’ dietary knowledge, ensuring employment and income, and strengthening the food supply chain resilience during the pandemic.

Evaluating Agricultural Food Supply Chain Resilience in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

With the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural food supply chains (AFSC) have suffered from unprecedented challenges and disruption. AFSC must possess extremely high levels of resilience when confronted by the pandemic. In this study, we have identified six important resilience criteria and eighteen sub-criteria of AFSC in the context of the COVID-19. The research presents the conceptual mixed multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technology to prioritize the resilience criteria based on understanding their interrelationships. Results identify three essential resilience criteria, namely “coordination and collaboration in the supply chain”, “efficiency”, and “strategic management” and the top five key sub-criteria as “velocity”, “visibility”, “continuity management”, “connectedness”, “collaborative planning and replenishment”. The framework proposed in this study contributes to the interdisciplinary understanding towards building resilience within AFSC, and has the potential to be extended to other types of supply chains in response to COVID-19.

Market Structure and Resilience of Food Supply Chains Under Extreme Events

Market Structure and Resilience of Food Supply Chains Under Extreme Events

Food supply chain resilience model for critical infrastructure collapses due to natural disasters

PurposeCritical infrastructure (CI) plays an essential role in reading, reacting and responding while dealing with natural disasters. This study address food supply chain resilience by proposing an FSC resilience model that explains the food product and transport flow via production, processing, distribution and retailing in circumstances of (CI) collapses post a natural disaster.Design/methodology/approachA combination of qualitative methods was conducted to obtain a comprehensive overview of the food and beverage sector in Puerto Rico. The full dataset comprised of seven focus groups for a total of 52 participants and 12 in-depth interviews.FindingsFSC resilience is seen in this study through the managerial actions taken by members of the Chain: innovating, transforming, adapting, and flexibilising business models and operations.Originality/valueThis study is the first to address FSC resilience from the perspective of net food importer economy in the context of natural disasters and prolonged Critical infrastructure (CI) breakdown, and the first one in proposing an FSC resilience model that explains the food product and transport flow via production, processing, distribution and retailing in circumstances of CI collapses post a natural disaster.

A simulation-based decision support system to improve the resilience of the food supply chain

ABSTRACT The rapid growth of population since 1950s has resulted in an enormous increase in demand for all kinds of manufactured goods. Manufacturing supply chains are becoming more sophisticated and complex, in particular within global food sector. At the same time, an increasing number of disruptions, ranging from those related to climate change and economic crisis as well as those associated with the socio-political turmoil and modern criminal activities such as cyber-attacks, are threatening the day-to-day operations. Although in the recent years, there have been significant advancements in supply chain management methods and tools, food manufacturers are still struggling to mitigate the possible impacts of these disruptions, leading to questions over the long-term resilience of their supply chains. This paper presents a novel framework for the improvement of food supply chain resilience and proposes a simulation-based decision support approach to aid the manufacturers to mitigate the impact of a range of unanticipated disruptions, specifically those related to climate change. The application of this framework has been demonstrated using activities of a dairy product manufacturer together with other main actors from its supply chain, namely the dairy farmers and wholesalers.

Could 3D food printing help to improve the food supply chain resilience against disruptions such as caused by pandemic crises?

SummaryThe ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic is having a tremendous effect on the current food system. The situation urges us to face many issues never experienced before, aimed at mitigating a multitude of sanitary and social risks. The current pandemic has affected the food system in many ways: significant changes in dietary habits and in the health status of people; the food chain is broken, which has an effect on food security (including making it difficult to find or to buy fresh food at affordable prices); unemployment or underemployment is rising due to the damages of the food sector; there is a lack of food‐socialising events which has an effect on people’s mental status; and there are concerns about food safety. To mitigate all these issues, the implementation of innovative technologies urges. We have mapped the scientific studies and online information on 3D food printing (3DFP) about the effects of 3DFP on the food system and people’s health when adopted in food industry, restaurants, hospitals, schools, offices, homes, etc. Finally, this information has been examined in light to the future challenges of the food chain also considering the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic, demonstrating its potential benefits to mitigate this and future pandemics.

Impacts of COVID-19 on food security, employment and education: An empirical assessment during the early phase of the pandemic

•The results showed that COVID-19 reduced food security, employment and education.•The impact was higher in reducing food security more than other considered indicators.•The impacts vary disproportionally by different household groups.•These impacts may change over time as we are on early stage. Background & aimsRecent evidences reveal that COVID-19 will have nontrivial results on the global economies. A balanced intervention is expected from policymakers to exploit the favorable effects of strong controlling actions on the health sector versus the possible economic and social impacts of those actions. The main objective of this study is to empirically quantify the household-level impacts of COVID-19 on food security, employment and education in Ethiopia.MethodsThe study employed propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression methods relying on data collected by the World Bank using high-frequency phone call between April 22 and May 13, 2020 in Ethiopia.ResultsThe results of the study showed that COVID-19 reduced food security while at the same time adversely affected employment and schooling. The results also showed that the impact was significantly higher in reducing household's food security more than the other considered indicators. Furthermore, the results indicated that impacts vary disproportionally by different household groups, and each restriction is not equally important in affecting welfare.ConclusionThe pandemic has affected welfares significantly, though the impact disproportionally varies among the different outcomes. It is not, however, clear how these impacts may change over time. As the pandemic is in its early stage, the condition calls for more researches to be conducted with wider datasets that can fully capture the potential and long-term impacts of the pandemic. It is also clear that these findings point the need of immediate and medium-term policy responses to the spread of the pandemic. The results suggest that ongoing and future government responses should focus on structural changes in social security by developing responsive packages to fight poverty possibly caused by the pandemics and building strong financial institutions to support the recovery of businesses in the medium term, and ensuring the resilience of food supply chains. Finally, this study also sheds light on the effects that COVID-19 has on general welfare in the short-run and points some potential areas that need extra supports. Recent evidences reveal that COVID-19 will have nontrivial results on the global economies. A balanced intervention is expected from policymakers to exploit the favorable effects of strong controlling actions on the health sector versus the possible economic and social impacts of those actions. The main objective of this study is to empirically quantify the household-level impacts of COVID-19 on food security, employment and education in Ethiopia. The study employed propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression methods relying on data collected by the World Bank using high-frequency phone call between April 22 and May 13, 2020 in Ethiopia. The results of the study showed that COVID-19 reduced food security while at the same time adversely affected employment and schooling. The results also showed that the impact was significantly higher in reducing household's food security more than the other considered indicators. Furthermore, the results indicated that impacts vary disproportionally by different household groups, and each restriction is not equally important in affecting welfare. The pandemic has affected welfares significantly, though the impact disproportionally varies among the different outcomes. It is not, however, clear how these impacts may change over time. As the pandemic is in its early stage, the condition calls for more researches to be conducted with wider datasets that can fully capture the potential and long-term impacts of the pandemic. It is also clear that these findings point the need of immediate and medium-term policy responses to the spread of the pandemic. The results suggest that ongoing and future government responses should focus on structural changes in social security by developing responsive packages to fight poverty possibly caused by the pandemics and building strong financial institutions to support the recovery of businesses in the medium term, and ensuring the resilience of food supply chains. Finally, this study also sheds light on the effects that COVID-19 has on general welfare in the short-run and points some potential areas that need extra supports.

Food supply chain resilience and the COVID‐19 pandemic: What have we learned?

A year into the COVID‐19 pandemic, this paper reflects on the changes that occurred in agrifood supply chains in Canada and the United States. The sudden shift in food consumption patterns from food service to food retail required realignment of food supply chains. For the most part, food supply chains have performed remarkably well during the pandemic. Cross‐border food supply chains have continued to function effectively. The most significant disruptions emerged from workforce outbreaks of COVID‐19 in the meat processing sector and in fruit and vegetable production. The paper discusses supply chain resilience and argues that agrifood supply chains are characterized by several important differences that need to be taken into consideration when evaluating resilience. Economies of scale and scope offer economic efficiency advantages in normal times, while investments in adaptability and flexibility can enhance resilience for abnormal times. Potential long‐run changes within supply chains include increased automation and digitalization in food supply chains, while investments in infrastructure for online delivery services have permanently altered the food retailing landscape.

The Covid-19 pandemic and meat supply chains

The Covid-19 pandemic has upended societies, economic activity, and business environments. With a focus on the meat processing sector, this paper considers the short, medium, and potential long-term implications of the pandemic for food supply chains. A series of short-run demand and supply shocks affected the food system. The pandemic has generated a lively discourse around the adaptability and resilience of food supply chains in the medium to longer term. Scale and scope economies in meat processing offer significant cost and efficiency advantages, while a more dispersed industry structure can be more flexible. The pandemic is likely to accelerate the adoption of automation and digitalization within food supply chains. The Covid-19 pandemic also focused consumer attention on the food system and the nature of food supply chains. Consumers' underlying food values may shape their response to uncertainty during a pandemic. The pandemic offers lessons for the food industry in proactively identifying and addressing points of vulnerability within supply chains.

Towards food supply chain resilience to environmental shocks.

Environmental variability and shock events can be propagated or attenuated along food supply chains by various economic, political and infrastructural factors. Understanding these processes is central to reducing risks associated with periodic food shortages, price spikes and reductions in food quality. Here we perform a scoping review of the literature to examine entry points for environmental variability along the food supply chain, the evidence of propagation or attenuation of this variability, and the food items and types of shock that have been studied. We find that research on food supply shocks has primarily focused on maize, rice and wheat, on agricultural production and on extreme rainfall and temperatures-indicating the need to expand research into the full food basket, diverse sources of environmental variability and the links connecting food production to consumption and nutrition. Insights from this new knowledge can inform key responses-at the level of an individual (for example, substituting foods), a company (for example, switching sources) or a government (for example, strategic reserves)-for coping with disruptions.