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IJOPM
33,2 Agri-fresh produce supply chain
management: a state-of-the-art
literature review
114
Manish Shukla and Sanjay Jharkharia
Quantitative Methods & Operations Management Area,
Received 26 May 2010
Revised 12 November 2010 Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Kozhikode, India
25 May 2011
30 September 2011 Abstract
18 January 2012
14 March 2012 Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review of the fresh produce supply
Accepted 5 May 2012 chain management (FSCM). FSCM includes the processes from the production to consumption of fresh
produce (fruits, flowers and vegetables).
Design/methodology/approach Literature review is done by systematically collecting the
existing literature over a period of 20 years (1989-2009) and classifying it on the basis of structural
attributes such as problem context, methodology and the product under consideration. The literature is
also categorized according to the geographic region and year of publication.
Findings There is an increase in interest towards FSCM still there is an absence of a journal with the
prime attention towards FSCM. The key finding of this review is that the main interest is towards consumer
satisfaction and revenue maximization with post-harvest waste reduction being a secondary objective. It is
revealed from the review that most of the literature is fragmented and is in silos. Lack of demand forecasting,
demand and supply mismatch, lesser integrated approach etc are the major causes of concerns.
Research limitations/implications The authors have taken only the fresh produce (fruits,
flowers and vegetables), authors may also look at other perishable items such as milk, meat, etc.
Practical implications Result shows a product-problem-methodology mapping which may serve
as a framework for the managers addressing issues in FSCM.
Originality/value Most of the prior literature reviews are focused on a specific issue such as
production planning or inventory management and ignore the broader perspective. There exists a need
of having a detailed literature review covering all the operational issues in FSCM. This review fills this
gap in the FSCM literature.
Keywords Supply chain management, Literature review, Agri-fresh produce, Fruits, Vegetables
Paper type Literature review
1. Introduction
Supply chain management (SCM) may be defined as:
[. . .] a set of approaches utilized to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses,
and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the
right locations, and at the right time, in order to minimize system-wide costs while satisfying
service level requirements (Simchi-Levi et al., 2008).
Over the years, the definitions have changed and broadened the scope of SCM, but, these
definitions are still limited to manufactured products and services with little attention
International Journal of Operations & being paid to agriculture. Agricultural produce constitutes a major part of the world
Production Management economy and is the raw material for many industries. Among the agricultural produce,
Vol. 33 No. 2, 2013
pp. 114-158
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0144-3577
The authors would like to place on record their appreciation to three anonymous referees for their
DOI 10.1108/01443571311295608 valuable suggestions, which have enhanced the quality of the paper over its earlier version.
agri-fresh produce have got the least attention. The SCM of agri-fresh produce, herein Agri-fresh
after referred to as agri-fresh supply chain management (FSCM), constitutes the produce SCM
processes from production to delivery of the agri-fresh produce, i.e. from the farmer to
the customer. FSCM is complex as compared to other SCMs due to the perishable nature
of the produce, high fluctuations in demand and prices, increasing consumer concerns
for food safety (Van der Vorst and Beulens, 2002), and dependence on climate conditions
(Salin, 1998). 115
It is found that there is a huge amount of inconsistency and confusion in segmenting
fruits, flowers and vegetables. Some of the authors grouped these within food products
(Salin and Nayga, 2003; Faulin, 2003; Alfaro and Rabade, 2009) without giving specific
attention to the product characteristics, whereas others define these as agri-food
(Aramyan et al., 2007; Ahumada and Villalobos, 2009b), short shelf-life food products
(Doganis et al., 2006), fresh produce (Fearne and Hughes, 1999; Zuurbier, 1999), perishables
(Broekmeulen and Von Donselaar, 2009; Chen et al., 2009), deteriorating products
(Lodree Jr and Uzochukwu, 2008), etc. Moreover, a few authors (Cadilhon et al., 2005;
Bertail and Caillavet, 2008) have preferred to use the commonly accepted names such as
fruits and vegetables. Others being more concentrated on a specific product discussed
products such as oranges (Caixeta-Filho, 2006), grapes (Ferrer et al., 2008), lily-flower
(Caixeta-Filho et al., 2002), etc. The research seems independent and oriented
towards problem solving rather theory developing. There seems a lack of an accepted
nomenclature for defining the produce. This vacuum is mainly due to the inherit
heterogeneity in the produce characteristics. In future, there is an acute need for
categorization of the produce to enhance the scalability of the developed models.
The objective of this paper is to address the major operational issues causing the
post-harvest waste in fruits, flowers and vegetables. Therefore, we define these as
agri-fresh produce to clearly differentiate these from other agri-produce and non-agri
produce. Figure 1 shows a detailed differentiation of various products to enhance the
understanding of agri-fresh produce.
Increasing globalization has brought the inflow of capital, technology, and information
to enhance vertical integration in FSCM (Reardon and Barrett, 2000). Globalization
has provided farmers altogether different market channels and facilities. It has helped
the farmers to look beyond the traditional spot market and sell their produce in a
global market at a competitive price. Globalization brought in funds which triggered
the consolidation of the food organization (processers, retailers, etc.) and farms. This
gave rise to funding in research and development, automation and development of
innovative farm and processing practices. This in turn supported globalization and
IJOPM Products
33,2
Durable Perishable
116
Deteriorate/Decay Obsolete/Out dated
Eatables Non-Eatables
2. Review process
Meredith (1993) defined a literature review as a summary of the existing literature by
finding research focus, trends, and issues. Fink (1998) further modified the definition
IJOPM and defines a literature review as a systematic, explicit, and reproducible design for
33,2 identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of recorded documents. This
definition has given emphasis to the review process as well as the desired results.
Brewerton and Millward (2001) define a literature review as content analysis, where
qualitative and quantitative techniques are used to find the structural and content
criteria. Harland et al. (2006) argued that a literature review identifies the conceptual
118 content of the domain and may even contribute to theory development. The critical
analysis of the research papers reveals several un-noticed trends in the literature. But,
the challenge is in analyzing the whole literature which keeps increasing with the
development of the domain. Therefore, we have to put some delimiting criteria to make
it possible to provide comprehensive reviews within the defined boundary. Mayring
(2003) has proposed a four-step process for performing a literature review. A detailed
description of the process suggested by Mayring (2003) is presented in Section 2.2.
Lately, there is a great emphasis on the structured and systematic review process.
A systematic review process is an evidence-based literature review process, originated
from medical science literature. Over the years, the systematic review has found acceptance
in several other scientific disciplines for reviewing the existing body of literature such as
education (Oakley, 2003), nursing (Evans and Pearson, 2001), housing policy (Davies
and Nutley, 1999), criminal justice (Laycock, 2000), social science (Tranfield et al., 2003), etc.
This trend was mainly motivated due to the structured approach of systematic reviews
and support of government agencies due to the need for evidence-based knowledge for
making public policies. Tranfield et al. (2003) defined a systematic review as a process
of synthesizing research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner with
the twin aim of enhancing the knowledge base and informing policymaking and practice.
They defined a three stage approach for systematic review as consisting of:
(1) planning the review;
(2) conducting the review; and
(3) reporting and dissemination.
Rousseau et al. (2008) also advocated the systematic review and proposed a four step
approach. This includes:
(1) question formulation: reflection, debate and reformulation;
(2) comprehensive identification of relevant research;
(3) organizing and interpreting; and
(4) synthesis.
They differentiated synthesis into four categories namely aggregation, integration, Agri-fresh
interpretation, and explanation. produce SCM
On the other hand, there also exists a growing body of literature that puts a question
mark on the credibility of the systematic review process as a scientific approach for a
literature review. This is due to the relative infancy of systematic reviews, confusing
guidelines, significant difference between medical science and other disciplines such as
social science. According to Petticrew (2001), systematic reviews are not even fully 119
accepted in medical research so there cannot be a consensus on their acceptability in
social science. It is also found that a few authors (Evans and Benefield, 2001; MacLure,
2005) have highly criticised the systematic review for being a mechanistic process with
absence of creativity.
The objective of this paper is to present a literature review and not to indulge in the
debate of evaluating the review processes adopted by the researchers. Therefore, we
build this paper on the procedure suggested by Mayring (2003). The approach
proposed by Mayring (2003) though similar to systematic review process may lack a
few characteristics. This can be taken care to make the review process more robust.
Nonetheless, we do not stick to all the nuances expressed by the respective definitions
of review processes. Thus, the approach adopted in this paper can be defined as the
fit-for-the-purpose systematic review process.
In order to enhance the level of understanding, we introduced the explicit research
question to guide this review process. The objective is: what is the current status of
literature addressing the major operational issues causing post-harvest waste in the
agri-fresh produce supply chains? Here major operational issues refer to the main
causes of waste at the operational level (from the production to delivery) of the
agri-fresh produce. These operational issues are covered in more detail in Section 4 of
the paper.
Ahumada and Villalobos (2009b) have differentiated the major issues for agri-fresh
produce into strategic, tactical and operational issues. They defined that strategic issues
includes decisions such as financial planning, supply network design, selection of
capacity, and technology, etc. the tactical decisions cover harvest planning, scheduling
of crops, selection of labor, capacity and crops, etc. The operational decisions include
production scheduling activities, harvesting, storage, etc. It is slightly difficult to
differentiate between strategic and tactical issues as well as tactical and operational
issue, thus we made an effort to differentiate the issues into strategic and operational.
Later the research papers segmented into operational issues are analyzed and it was
found that there are few major causes of post-harvest waste. The quantum of the cause
was decided by the inputs from theory as well as practice. In theory there are few papers
such as Murthy et al. (2009) which differentiate the post-harvest waste according to the
operational issues. To get the practitioners view, newspapers and magazine articles
were analyzed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with farmers, retailers,
wholesalers, and transporters. From this exercise it was evident that transportation is
the biggest cause of post-harvest waste followed by inventory management. In addition
to that, a major portion of the agri-fresh produce is wasted at the farmers end. Thus,
there exists a need for an efficient tool for production planning and harvest scheduling.
One of the major causes of all this waste was the lack of information regarding demand.
Though there is an absence of studies quantifying the effect of the lack of demand on
post-harvest waste, this factor (lack of information regarding demand) was considered
IJOPM as a major reason of waste by the researchers (Viswanadham, 2006) as well as by
33,2 practitioners. Therefore, the target of this paper is to analyze the literature addressing
the major operational issues (demand forecasting, harvest scheduling, inventory
management and transportation) for post-harvest waste reduction in agri-fresh produce
supply chains.
A paper which satisfies all these four delimiting conditions was included in the study.
For example, a paper Orange harvesting scheduling management: a case study is
published in a peer-reviewed journal in year 2006. This paper is addressing an
operational issue (harvest scheduling) for an agri-fresh produce (orange). This paper has
been included in this study. On the other hand Improved supply chain management
based on hybrid demand forecasts is not included into the sample because it discusses
a processed product (vegetal oil). Papers were collected applying a structured search,
using phrases such as fresh produce, agriculture supply chain. Later, vegetable
supply chain, fruit supply chain, fresh supply chain, perishable agriculture products,
food products, potato, tomato, mango, grapes, banana, etc. were also included. Citations
of papers related to agri-fresh produce were referred to find more related papers.
Research databases such as Emerald (www.emeraldinsight.com), Elsevier (www.
sciencedirect.com), Springer (www.springerlink.com), Wiley (www.wiley.com), and
Ebsco (www.ebsco.com) were searched for relevant papers. The papers were either
selected or rejected after performing a content check.
Papers addressing the issues for perishables though not food item were excluded Agri-fresh
from the study as shown in Figure 1. This reduced the number of papers to just a few produce SCM
hundred. After this initial exercise, the papers other than those in peer-reviewed journals
were excluded and this reduced the total number of papers to around 150. After excluding
the papers discussing non-agri-fresh produce the total number of papers in the sample
was 86. The quality of the research papers included for the analysis may be judged by
the citation criteria presented in Appendix 1. Considering the relative infancy of the topic, 121
it is not deemed appropriate to exclude papers with fewer citations. Moreover, there is also
a dilemma regarding the correlation between years elapsed since publication and the
citations as new papers get less opportunities to be cited. Therefore, though the citation
analysis is presented for all the papers, this is not exercised as criteria to exclude papers.
In order to increase the reliability of this process, the same exercise was performed
separately by the authors of this paper.
Figure 2 shows a detailed representation of the analysis process (steps 3 and 4).
A feedback loop is shown for the analysis purpose, but such loops shall also be used
for the overall processes.
One can adopt a deductive or an inductive approach to define structural attributes and
the corresponding analytical categories. In the case of a deductive approach, structural
attributes are defined first and then the material is collected, whereas in an inductive
approach, structural attributes are identified by means of a generalization (Mayring,
2003). But, in a literature review it is better to use both the approaches iteratively. In this
case we have taken inputs from the literature as well as practitioners to form the
structural attributes by adopting a combination of deductive and inductive approach.
IJOPM Theory-driven selection of structural
33,2 dimension and analytic categories
Figure 2.
Step wise representation Preparation of results
of a structured content
analysis
Source: Mayring (2003), Seuring and Mller (2008)
There are several generalizations to be made to comprehend all the papers. To avoid
errors, one needs to follow steps 3 and 4 iteratively. This is more so as the attributes and
categories get revised in the processes of analysis (Mayring, 2002).
It was found that in management research very few papers have the same research
question and study the same events. Moreover, it is the fragmented nature of the
management research itself (Whitely, 2000) that makes synthesis a difficult process.
It is also observed that less integration in management literature is due to the low level
of motivation shown by the management journals for replication (Kilduff, 2007).
The discipline itself is more oriented towards novelty (Mone and McKinley, 1993). In case
the field of study comprises of semi-independent fields, then, synthesis becomes even
more complex. In such cases, synthesis is achieved through summarizing the findings
of a group of studies. The heterogeneity in data makes it highly difficult to perform
a meta-analysis and rarely possible in management research (Tranfield et al., 2003).
The advocates of meta-analysis for literature synthesis suggest that some differences can
be accounted for by identifying mediators and moderators. But, the analysis of the
literature clearly reveals that this is also an infeasible option in the current scenario.
Therefore, synthesis can be improved by the categorization of literature in order to have
an enhanced understanding of the literature within the category.
Considering these constraints, the attributes were generalized to form several categories
such as geographies based on the economies that are characterized as developed, and
developing economies. Methodologies are categorized as modeling (linear programming,
goal programming, dynamic programming, and stochastic programming), simulation
(simulation, systems dynamics), case study, and empirical research (field research,
econometric models). Problem contexts are categorized into demand forecasting (demand
forecasting, demand-price elasticity), production planning (production, harvest
scheduling), inventory management, transportation (transportation, vehicle routing,
distribution), and others (introduction, co-ordination, and integration). It is possible that
a research paper may be categorized under two categories of the same attribute, but the Agri-fresh
best suited category is considered to avoid any kind of possible duplication. produce SCM
2.3 Rigor of the research process
All the research processes and corresponding methodologies have some advantages
and disadvantages. Objectivity of the current process is maintained by adopting a
structured and fit-for-purpose systematic process. Guidelines in Kassarjan (1997) were 123
the base for validity of this research. Reviews of other topics were referred to form the
constructs. Reliability was ensured by following the citation analysis and taking
the help of other independent researchers. Hence, the current research meets the
requirement of being a rigorous research process.
3.1 OM-journals
These journals specifically address the OM issues, though the problem may be
related to agri-fresh produce. Among the total 86 papers reviewed, 46 papers were
published in these journals addressing the FSCM issues from an operations
perspective. This shows that a large number of researchers have attempted to solve an
OM problem where the concerned product is an agri-fresh produce. Here the produce
characteristics may or may not be of much concern as the main objective is
operational excellence. In such a scenario, the chances of theory development,
specifically for agri-fresh produce are very less. It more likely that already existing
theories may be applied to solve the problems at hand. Thus, the exclusiveness for
agri-fresh produce may not be addressed in most of the papers. The percentage of
papers published in the journal addressing agri-fresh produce as compared to the total
publications in these journals is negligible. In a period of 20 years there are only
46 papers published out of which 20 are published in just two journals. This shows
that, though there is an interest in addressing the agri-fresh produce but the total
research is very less.
appeared in a specific journal (British Food Journal (BFJ)) shows that there is an overall
gap in the agricultural journal to address the problem.
Figure 3.
Trend of FSCM literature
across the years
IJOPM The volume and continuity of research papers as shown in Figure 3 will surely attract the
33,2 attention of publishers and editors towards the lack of a journal addressing the agri-fresh
supply chain issues. The effect of lack of a specific journal shall reflect in future special
issues addressing FSCM. It is also found that a lot of papers have addressed a country
specific issue. In these country-specific publications, the UK, China, The Netherlands, and
the USA gained a majority of the attention, with a limited thrust on Brazil, India, Vietnam,
126 and Spain. One of the reasons for this may be the organized food sector in the developed
countries which can fund the research in FSCM as compared to the fragmented food
sectors in developing countries. In developing countries, the major research concern is for
producing enough food grains to feed the population rather on FSCM. Table II presents the
details of the country-specific studies. The studies which are not very specific to any
particular country or region are categorized as generic. This is not at all surprising as it is
quite similar to the country rating according to SCImago (www.scimagojr.com). The little
deviation is explicit due to the economical orientation of the few countries towards
agriculture. Besides, the global nature of the agri-fresh produce supply chains has resulted
in most of the studies as generic, i.e. addressing no specific country.
Based on the level of economic development, countries are classified as developed
and developing. Developed countries include the USA, Western European nations,
Singapore, etc. developing countries include Brazil, Russia, China, India, etc. Figure 4
shows the distribution of the number of published papers by developed and developing
countries. This shows that research during the last two decades focused much of its
attention on developed countries, with limited attention to developing countries. The
existing advanced infrastructure, availability of funds, customer awareness and most
important consolidation of food organization has given the desired research environment
USA 9
UK 8
China 5
The Netherlands 5
India 4
Chile 3
Brazil 3
Vietnam 2
Spain 2
Australia 2
Russia 2
Ukraine 1
Turkey 1
Greece 1
Finland 1
Canada 1
France 1
Philippines 1
Sri Lanka 1
Table II. Thailand 1
Number of studies Slovenia 1
across countries Generic 31
Agri-fresh
produce SCM
127
Figure 4.
Research studies on
specific countries by level
of economic development
In addition to these four major categories of operational issues there are certain other
issues which are operational in nature but do not fit into any of these four categories.
The examples of such are buyer-supplier relationship to reduce wastes, e-commerce
activities in FSCM, case studies on FSCM, etc. These issues have been put together in a
fifth category called others. A review of literature on these issues is presented in the
following sub sections.
4.4 Transportation
This section discusses the transportation related issues in the agri-fresh produce
supply chains. It has been observed that, waste in transportation is one of the highest in
the FSCM (Murthy et al., 2009). This waste is generally due to handling and deterioration
of the product. Thus, vehicle routing decisions are of high importance. Time being a
critical factor the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW) gained the
attention of researchers addressing transportation issues in FSCM. VRPTW assumes
the location, demand and time window to be known for each customer (Osvald and Stirn,
2008). The objective is to satisfy the customer demand with minimum time, distance
traveled and vehicles used. Therefore, the aim is to find the routes for each vehicle
covering the customers. Other assumptions are that customers are assigned to only
one vehicle and the total load of all the assigned customers cannot exceed the capacity
of the vehicle.
In the case of agri-fresh produce, maintaining the delivery window with the earliest
and latest delivery time for each customer becomes even more complex. As for agri-fresh
produce there are losses due to the natural deterioration additional to the penalty for the
delayed delivery. The early application of VRP/VRPTW is generally for meat and
milk transportation. A detailed review of the literature for refrigerated vehicle Agri-fresh
transportation can be found in James et al. (2006). They discuss the historic evidence of produce SCM
agricultural produce transportation in refrigerated vehicles. The main focus was on
transportation through sea and modeling the temperature control system while
transportation.
The literature discussing the delivery of agricultural produce within a city is
very scarce. The milk collection and delivery system is studied by few researchers. 133
Tarantilis and Kiranoudis (2001) studied the milk runs of a heterogeneous fixed fleet
vehicle routing problem (VRP). They applied a threshold-acceptable based algorithm to
schedule the distribution of milk. Du et al. (2007) studied the parameters setting of a
real-time VRP for milk runs. They proposed a two phase solution to decide an initial
vehicle dispatch module and the other for deciding an inter route improvement module.
They also proposed a best-fit algorithm and two-exchange algorithm for both the
modules, respectively. Claassen and Hendriks (2007) focused on the milk collection
problem. They found that the application of special ordering set type (SOST) is
beneficial for decision making in milk collection. It seems that the researchers have
addressed the transportation of milk but not agri-fresh produce. It is to be noted that
the same research cannot be replication as there exists a significant difference in the
demand pattern and natural characteristics of the agri-fresh produce.
There also exist a few papers discussing the trade-off of factors such as
transportation cost, price, and perishability. Such as, Wilmsmeier and Sanchez (2009)
discussed the effect of transportation cost on food price in shipping by performing an
empirical analysis. Vanek and Sun (2008) discussed an energy consumption model to
investigate the relation between transportation and perishability of temperature
controlled food products, considering the environmental impact of both the factors.
Madadi et al. (2010) discussed the multi-level inventory management decision coupled
with the transportation cost. They proposed a centralised and decentralised model to find
the effect of the total retail orders on the inventory cost. Cai et al. (2010) focused on the
efforts by the producer and distributor to keep the produce fresh. They studied the
decisions to be taken by the producer and distributor and the co-ordination between them
in decentralised and centralised system. Broekmeulen (1998) proposed a model,
incorporating factors such as seasonality and perishability, to enhance the efficiency of a
fruit and vegetable distribution centre. Ahumada and Villalobos (2009a) presented
an integrated MILP model for production and distribution of fresh produce, incorporating
the produce characteristics and business constraints. Most of the research is focused on
co-ordination of transportation with other functions such as production or inventory
decisions. There seems an effort to address a lot of issues in transportation of food but
seems a lack in presenting a holistic view. The papers are trying to propose a solution to
the problem at hand by adopting standard methods from already developed theory.
There is a lack of theory developed for agri-fresh produce transportation.
Tarantilis and Kiranoudis (2002) proposed a solution for the fresh meat distribution
system by applying a special meta-heuristic algorithm. Faulin (2003) studied
the application of mixed algorithm procedure to optimize the food products delivery.
Hu et al. (2009) presented the distribution of food products from the wholesaler to the
retailers in Beijing, China. They proposed a two stage model for VRP taking several
constraints into consideration. They solved the proposed model using left cutting
algorithm and compared the results with the improved ant colony algorithm (IACA).
IJOPM Hsu et al. (2007) presented a heuristic to solve VRPTW with soft time window constraints.
33,2 The problem considered is the delivery of lunch boxes to a number of customers, with
stochastic and deterministic demands. The model considers the fixed cost, travel cost,
inventory cost, energy cost, and deterioration of food with respect to time. Very few
research papers have considered the deterioration of the products while transportation.
One of the early applications of deterioration in modeling was considered by
134 Amponsah and Salhi (2004). They studied the transportation of garbage and considered
the smell of garbage (which increases with time) and the total cost into the model.
Researchers have mostly adopted heuristics from the literature to address the problem at
hand. The key addition is the deterioration function for the agri-fresh produce
deterioration. Still the main objective is revenue maximization and not waste reduction.
Chen et al. (2009) presented a non-linear programming model for production
scheduling and vehicle routing for distribution of food products. Very few research
papers discussed the distribution of agri-fresh produce from a central depot (wholesaler)
to the retailers in a city. Osvald and Stirn (2008) proposed a multi-objective VRPTW
model for the distribution of fresh vegetables in a city. The main objectives were to
minimize the time, distance traveled, number of vehicles used and penalty by the
customers for delayed delivery. Waste reduction may be an outcome but was not
the primary objective. The problem was converted to a single objective by taking the
weighted average. They applied the Tabu search algorithm to find the solution for
the proposed model. It was assumed that the produce remains stable over a period and
starts deteriorating linearly till it reaches the end of life (or becomes rotten). But, the real
situation is different as the agri-fresh produce starts deteriorating just after harvesting
especially due to handling, poor packaging, and transportation. Rong et al. (2011)
proposed a mixed-integer linear programming model for production and distribution
of fresh produce incorporating food quality as a key factor. They presented a case study
of bell peppers supply chain to explain the implementation of the proposed model.
From this review it is evident that most of the research in transportation is
concentrated towards transportation of meat and milk only. The issues that got attention
are the maintenance of temperature and the handling of cargo, with little attention on waste
due to deterioration. Very few research papers have addressed the issues of agri-fresh
produce, especially the waste due to transportation and handling. Manikas and Terry
(2010) highlighted that there is a lack of literature addressing the distribution of fresh
fruits and vegetables. It is also been found that time is a critical factor due to strict delivery
window of the customers and continuous deterioration of the agri-fresh produce. Hence,
there exists a need to address the VRP for agri-fresh produce considering the cost and
time factors. The major complexity is in incorporating the agri-fresh produce
natural characteristics along with the practical and business constraints. Due to the
NP-hard nature of the VRPTW, finding a near optimal solution in real time will also be a
difficult task. The focus needs to be shifted from revenue maximization to post-harvest
waste reduction.
4.5 Others
This section discusses the issues which come in the operational domain but could not
be included in any of the four categories as described above. For example, the issues such
as case studies, fresh produce supply chains, buyer-supplier relations, e-commerce in
fresh produce supply chain have been included in this section. Wilson (1996a, b),
Grimsdell (1996) and Zuurbier (1999) discussed production and distribution of agri-fresh Agri-fresh
produce as SCM. Corbett (1993) discussed the experiments conducted to improve produce SCM
vegetable production. Authors such as Maia et al. (1997), Van der Vorst et al. (2000) and
Aramyan et al. (2007) applied advanced OR techniques to solve complex problems in
agri-fresh produce. Reiner and Trcka (2004) emphasised that the study of agri-fresh
produce is highly produce and company dependent and hence, further increased the
complexity of the already complex agri-fresh produce supply chains. These papers 135
contributed in developing the understanding of a supply chain in the production to
distribution of the agri-fresh produce.
The research on FSCM has got the attention of developed as well as developing
countries. For example, Fearne and Hughes (1999), Van der Vorst and Beulens (2002)
and Taylor (2005) have conducted study on FSCM in the context of developed countries.
On the other hand, there are evidences of FSCM studies in developing countries as
well. Joshi et al. (2009) and Sagheer et al. (2009) have conducted their studies in the
Indian context whereas Perera et al. (2004) has done the study in Sri Lankan context.
Swinnen and Maertens (2007) studied the effect of globalization on agri-fresh produce
supply chain in the developing countries. In the recent years there is a significant
increase in collaboration and globalization related issues in FSCM. Accordingly, the
research work on these topics by Matopoulos et al. (2007), Dunne (2008), Mikkola (2008)
and Van Donk et al. (2008) are also found in the literature. There are several other issues
such as quality, strategy (Blackburn and Scudder, 2009), technology implementation
(Salin, 1998), etc. addressed in the literature in order to understand the concept of
supply chain for agri-fresh produce.
The next section presents the classification of the literature based on the
methodology applied to address the problems.
Modeling 15 2 7 3 27
Simulation 1 1 3 5
Empirical
studies 11 1 1 1 8 22
Case study 3 1 3 14 21 Table III.
Action The number of papers
research 2 2 addressing any issues
General 1 2 1 5 9 using the corresponding
Total 16 19 4 12 35 86 technique
IJOPM computational resources, and the comfort levels of the researcher in using that
33,2 particular methodology. Thus, the mapping is done to find the relation of the
methodology to the problem.
Linear programming (Saedt et al., 1991; Van Berlo, 1993; Hamer, 1994), non-linear
programming (Allen and Schuster, 2004) and MILP (Maia et al., 1997) have been used to
a great extent in production planning, inventory management and transportation.
136 Lately, LP, MILP (Ferrer et al., 2008) formulations and software packages
(Caixeta-Filho et al., 2002; Ferrer et al., 2008) for solution have been used. Dynamic
programming (Stokes et al., 1997; Widodo et al., 2006) and stochastic programming
(Darby-Dowman et al., 2000) are also used in some of the papers. This shows that
mathematical programming is the most preferred methodology especially for
production planning. The common trend is the proposing LP, MILP models and
adopting standard software to solve it. It is found that not very complex models are
introduced. Thus, the use of heuristics and meta-heuristics is very limited. The overall
understanding is that, with the progress in research more complex problems will be
addressed and tailored solution approaches will be required.
Empirical studies are mostly found focusing on demand forecasting. This is mainly due
to the availability of huge volumes of data for a large number of attributes. Researchers
have used moving average, exponential smoothing, and other traditional methods,
whereas some reported use of ARIMA models (Liu et al., 2001) to predict the demand in a
shorter time horizon. A number of studies have shown a comparison or fusion of two or
more forecasting techniques such as ARIMA, ANN, etc. These methods are generally
adopted from literature without much modification for FSCM. This shows a need for a
robust method to increase the forecast efficiency in FSCM.
Case studies have found special place in the FSCM research (Wilson, 1996a;
Van der Vorst et al., 2000; Aramyan et al., 2007; Alfaro and Rabade, 2009) as a tool for
general awareness and defining the boundary of the domain. It has also been found that
most of the case studies were coupled with system dynamic modeling to find a solution.
This is mainly due to the novelty of the topic which encourages the researchers to use
case study to introduce as well as define the boundaries of FSCM. A simulation approach
is also applied in a few papers (Reiner and Trcka, 2004), mostly systems dynamics
simulation. Other traditional tools and techniques such as algebraic equations,
heuristics, meta-heuristics and regression have also been used. Computer programming
and software packages have been used for input, interface, and computations.
Introduction to FSCM, production planning and demand forecasting have gained most of the
attention, with less attention towards inventory management and transportation.
The co-ordination and integration related issues are discussed generally in case
studies, addressing produce at the individual and aggregate level. Production planning
of the fresh-products also have been studied on an aggregate, and in some cases on
a disaggregate level. Papers discussing demand forecasting generally tried to find the
price elasticity of various products. But, papers also considered fruits/vegetables as a single
product in most of the cases. Other issues such as inventory management and
transportation have also been discussed, but only on an aggregate level.
The FSCM for all kinds of produce cannot follow the same strategy, as the
agri-fresh produce has a high level of heterogeneity. The rate of deterioration and other
biological conditions also vary to a high degree across produce, so storage and
transportation conditions should also be different for all the produce. Table V shows the
products studied vis-a`-vis geographical location. It is to be noted that most of the research
has taken place in developed countries and agri-business oriented countries such as
The Netherlands.
It is also to be noted that a large number of research papers have addressed
issues independent of the geography, generally taking all vegetables/fruits as a single
product. This was the introductory phase of research when there was a need to
establish awareness for an efficient FSCM. Countries such as India, though being one of
the biggest agri-fresh produce producers, have paid the least attention to the issues
related to FSCM. Countries like the UK, the USA, China, and The Netherlands have paid
the highest attention on FSCM related research. A lot of other relevant interpretations
can be drawn from the analysis presented in Sections 4-6 discussing the classification
of the literature. Moreover, the common themes within the categories are very well
explained though the analysis across the categories is less evident. We presented an
analysis in Appendix 2 to elaborate more on the synthesis across the categories. This
analysis is a snap-shot of the total literature discussed in this review. The interesting facts
that are revealed will be further taken up in the conclusion and discussion section.
33,2
138
location
Table V.
IJOPM
vis-a`-vis geographical
The products studied
Bell
All Apple Banana peppers Broccoli Flowers Fruits Grapes Mango Onion Orange Potato Tomato Vegetables Total
USA 2 1 1 1 2 2 9
UK 6 1 1 8
China 4 1 5
TheNetherlands 3 2 5
India 2 1 1 4
Chile 3 3
Brazil 1 1 1 3
Vietnam 1 1 2
Spain 1 1 2
Australia 1 1 2
Russia 2 2
Ukraine 1 1
Turkey 1 1
Greece 1 1
Finland 1 1
Canada 1 1
France 1 1
Philippines 1 1
Sri Lanka 1 1
Thailand 1 1
Slovenia 1 1
Generic 23 1 1 3 1 2 31
Total 48 1 2 1 1 2 4 4 1 1 1 1 3 16 86
7. Discussion and conclusion Agri-fresh
This paper presents a state-of-the-art literature review of FSCM, discussing major produce SCM
operational issues accountable for post-harvest waste. The aim is to highlight the
trends and opportunities in research addressing the FSCM. To meet this objective,
literature is collected from various databases over a period of 20 years (1991-2011).
The literature is systematically reviewed and classified to provide a better
understanding of the research in the last two decades. In order to maintain the rigor 139
of the overall process, a structured and fit-for-purpose systematic research process is
followed in both the collection and content analysis of the literature. The review process
is inspired and guided by the principles of Mayring (2003), Tranfield et al. (2003) and
Rousseau et al. (2008), considering the advantages and ignoring the disadvantages of the
respective processes.
A two-step process is followed for literature segmentation and synthesis. First the
literature is segmented according to the journals, publications per year, and countries
to get an overview. The journals are categorized into OM-journals, agriculture journals,
and other journals. It was found that out of 86 papers, 46 were published in
OM-journals and 30 were published in agriculture journals. The papers in OM-journals
have addressed the problem by applying the existing tools/techniques with very little
consideration to the specific product characteristics, whereas the papers in agriculture
journals are more focused on the product characteristics. The result of this analysis
shows the absence of a journal with the prime attention towards FSCM. It is found that,
recently the number of publications per year has increased as more than 50 percent of
the papers are published in the last five years. This trend may be contributed to the
global factors in the last five years such as increased food and fuel prices, vegetable oil
consumption as a fuel, and the breakout of diseases such as bird flu and swine flu.
These factors attracted the attention of consumers, policy makers, researchers, and
practitioners towards the lack of research in agri-fresh produce.
The literature is also segmented according to the countries and it is found that
most of the research is in the USA, China, The Netherlands, and the UK, with only a
limited attention paid to the developing countries. This is also evident from the fact that
60 percent of the papers are addressing issues of developed countries while only
40 percent are focused on developing countries. This is quite similar to the research trend
in other disciplines with few exceptions. But, it is believed that in the coming years,
there will be huge change in this trend, with a majority of research publications from
Asian countries with growing economies such as India and China. These countries
are one of the largest producers and consumers of agri-fresh produce. It is also to be
noted that the highest proportion of the worlds poor are in Asia. It is expected that in the
future there will be several changes in the consumption pattern of the population
especially in these countries which will trigger the need for an efficient FSCM. It is found
that the post-harvest waste reduction is a secondary objective with the primary concern
towards revenue increment in almost all of the papers. Therefore, unless the direct
benefits of post-harvest waste reduction is shared among the stakeholders such as
farmers, wholesalers, and retailers it will be very difficult to implement the proposed
models. The current trend may also be attributed to the lack of government policies
and consumer awareness to reduce post-harvest waste in developing countries.
So, governments and private organizations have to put in the effort necessary to reduce
the post-harvest waste to reduce the levels of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.
IJOPM In the second step, the literature is classified according to the problem context,
33,2 methodology, and product and geographical region for an in-depth analysis of the same.
The research in FSCM is in the nascent stage and is disintegrated into problem contexts.
The studies have addressed the problems in isolation with little attention to the
interdependence of the problems. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fragmented
nature of the FSCs itself. The lack of an integrated transportation and information
140 infrastructure adds to this fragmentation. Figure 5 shows the status of FSCM is several
developing countries where a large number of intermediaries exist between the farmers
and consumers.
Most of the problems are generally well studied and explored for manufacturing
products but have recently gained attention for agri-fresh produce. It is also implicit that
the research in specific problem contexts will continue to increase in the short term.
Nevertheless, with the increase in efforts, the requirement for integrative contributions
will emerge to understand the overall phenomena of FSCM. It is seen that the level of
interest varies across the problem contexts. There are a lot of context specific papers,
especially in demand forecasting and production planning. Other problems such as
inventory management and transportation have been explored to some extent but very
few studies considered the agri-fresh produce. Therefore, a huge potential exists for
exploring these problems in FSCM.
In the current scenario, there is almost no information sharing among the various
stakeholders of FSCM. This leads to the mismatch of demand and supply. The lack of
efficient demand forecast is another factor contributing to this mismatch. Figure 6
shows the typical scenario of agri-fresh supply chain with the missing demand and
supply link. In such cases, the transactions are through the commission agents which
take the maximum benefits without adding any value (De Boer and Pandey, 1997).
The missing information sharing infrastructure results in concealing of information
and a huge lag between consumer demand and farmers reaction to that demand.
Buyukbay et al. (2011) attributed lack of demand information as one of the main reasons
for waste. The spot market acts as an auction market where the agents of consolidators
Figure 5.
FSCM representing the
fragmented transportation
and information sharing
and retailers bargain and make transactions. Therefore, there is a lack of ownership Agri-fresh
within the chain. All the players are concerned with their own revenue maximization produce SCM
with limited attention towards the overall profit of the chain. This lack of a holistic view
of a supply chain is leading to the post-harvest waste.
The demand forecasting literature has addressed the issues for manufacturing
products with very less attention to agri-fresh produce. Generally, the studies have
considered the fresh produce as a single commodity and have tried to forecast the demand. 141
But, there is a need to forecast the demand of agri-fresh produce on a disaggregate level.
Considering the perishable and seasonal nature of the agri-fresh produce it is necessary
to study it at disaggregate level. Therefore, the challenge for researchers is to extract the
information from various sources and to decide on an efficient forecasting technique
building on the existing forecasting literature. The demand forecasting in unorganised
wholesales or spot market will be extremely complex as compared to demand forecasting
in the supermarket or organized retail sector. Shukla and Jharkharia (2011) studied an
ARIMA model to forecast demand of onions on a daily basis. But the literature addressing
demand forecasting for agri-fresh produce is still in nascent stage. Further, the
generalization of the proposed model across the agri-fresh produce category will be
another challenge.
As there is either an absence or a delayed input of the consumer demand to the farmers,
it is found that farmers are generally following the traditional product mix despite the
change in consumption patterns. This is also evident from the analysis of the literature.
The consumer demand is generally not considered in the modeling for the production
planning decisions. Moreover, it is found that the production planning decisions are
mostly focused on the use of farm land, allocation of resources, etc. (Glen, 1987) and very
little attention is given to the losses due to inefficient harvesting. The harvest scheduling
literature for agri-fresh produce is still in its infancy with only a few papers addressing
the problem. But, there is a huge amount of literature addressing forest harvesting
(Bredstrom et al., 2004), sugar cane harvesting (Grunowa et al., 2007), and food grains such
as rice harvesting (Deris and Ohta, 1990). The agri-fresh produce harvesting problem
may be attempted by incorporating the produce characteristics to the literature of food
grain harvesting. It is also found that most of the papers have proposed mathematical
models but there is a low utilization of the models in other situations. These models are
generally solved by software such as GAMS and AMPL using Cplex solver. Given the
current complexity of the models, it may be possible. But, the model incorporating real
life and business constraints will present a major difficulty and may need heuristics
and meta-heuristics to solve.
Figure 6.
Current status
of agri-fresh supply chains
in developing countries
IJOPM There is also very less integration between the production planning and inventory
33,2 management literature for agri-fresh produce. The inventory literature, strives to reduce
the waste, but the main focus is on consumer satisfaction and revenue maximization.
The literature on agri-fresh produce can gain heavily from the deteriorating product
inventory management literature. It is also found that there is a low integration of the
inventory literature to the demand forecasting and transportation literature even though
142 the mathematical models in inventory management use factors such as consumer
demand and transportation lead time. But, to reduce the complexity of the models, these
factors are assumed as either constant or as stochastic. There is almost no use of real life
values of consumer demand and transportation lead times in modeling the inventory
problem. Therefore, there is a need for mathematical models using these factors and
solution techniques that can produce real time results for complex models.
Transportation is one of the most developed and research topics in OM/research.
Till now there are a lot of established heuristics for a large number of transportation
problems. But, the use of these in the transportation of agri-fresh produce is very little.
Manikas and Terry (2010) emphasised that there exists a need for research in the
distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables. Generally, the transportation literature
addresses milk or meat transportation with little attention to the characteristics of
agri-fresh produce. It is also observed that only few researchers attempted the delivery
of processed food by using the VRP literature. Researchers and practitioners can make
use of the existing literature from these examples and can propose robust models for
transportation of agri-fresh produce. Moreover, there is a very little application of
advanced solution techniques to the transportation problem for agri-fresh produce. It is
required to apply the artificial intelligence techniques to find real time solutions for
these problems. Though, the transportation literature strives to reduce the total cost,
it is not much concerned about reducing post-harvest waste. This is a very significant
factor and shall be incorporated with the other factors such as the distance traveled,
and the time taken into mathematical modeling.
The literature was classified according to the applied methodologies to find out the
theoretical orientation of the field as a whole. From this analysis, it is revealed that most
of the problems were solved using mathematical modeling and simulation. Methods
such as case studies and empirical analysis are confined to areas such as problem
identification and forecasting. Taking into account the relative infancy of the field, it is
expected that in the future there will be an increase in use of other methodologies.
Even cross methodological approaches are expected considering the fragmented nature
of the problems. Best practices from the practitioners have not emerged in the papers.
This shows the lack of universally accepted practices and the complex nature of the
problem. With the increase in literature it is also assumed that best practices and
advanced techniques will emerge as in the manufacturing literature.
The classification according to the produce shows that, in a majority of the cases
all the agri-fresh produce is assumed as a single commodity, with only limited attention
to the individual product characteristics. It is very important to study the produce at
the individual level given its perishable and seasonal nature. The consumption habits
and climate of any geographical location plays an important role in deciding the relative
importance of the agri-fresh produce to that particular region. Produce that have an
international demand such as banana, grapes, oranges, potato, tomato, etc. have got
attention on an individual level. Most of the vegetables are generally treated in groups
due to their high level of substitutability and low profit margins. The study of literature Agri-fresh
across the geographies reveals that there is an increase in FSCM research but it is mainly produce SCM
limited to a few countries. It is interesting to note that these countries have almost the
same ranking for research in all other disciplines (www.scimagojr.com). There are a
few exceptions such as The Netherlands due to its commitment towards agriculture.
There is a need for research to be replicated and studied in the developing nations which
are among the biggest suppliers and consumers of agri-fresh produce. 143
The classification provided in this paper may be useful in understanding the
FSCM from a holistic perspective. The mapping of problem context to methodology and
to product shows a clear picture of the link of product-problem-methodology. This
mapping may be used as a framework to facilitate the work of managers and researchers
addressing the FSCM. It may serve as a frame of reference to decide a suitable
methodology for a given problem context. The mapping of products to geographies
gives the insights about the real-life problems. The problem-methodology mapping
helps in understanding the way in which these problems are addressed in other parts of
the world. This can help the practitioners analyze the similarities and differences from
other contexts and guide them to build, modify, and practice new solutions.
FSCM is an emerging area and offers a lot of opportunities for applying the
established methodologies to new problems. The problems are different, complex,
and challenging, due to the large number of associated variables and parameters.
It is also suggested to formulate a combination of various tool and techniques to
address problems. It is for sure that in the coming years a large number of changes will
be seen in the concepts, technologies, and management practices of the agri-fresh
produce SCM.
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Table AI.
155
33,2
156
IJOPM
Table AI.
Author(s) with
Author(s) Geography Product Problem Methodology Citations professional affiliation(s)
Table AI.
157
33,2
158
IJOPM
Table AII.
Problem
Appendix 2
Issue Forecasting Harvest scheduling Ordering/retrieval policy Vehicle routing problem (VRP)
Theoretical Forecasting literature Scheduling literature Deteriorating inventory VRP literature
base literature
Produce Individual/group Individual Individual Individual
studied
Method Empirical studies Mathematical modeling/ Mathematical modeling Mathematical modeling
simulation
Tool AIDS/ARIMA/ANN LP, MILP, IP, SP, DP, SD LP, MILP LP, IP
Solution SPSS/LINDEP Heuristic, CPLEX/GAMS/AMPL Heuristic, CPLEX, GAMS Heuristic, meta heuristics,
CPLEX
Major factors Sales, holidays, price, weather, Sales price, demand, maturation, Demand, deterioration, lead time, Demand, deterioration, penalty,
special discount deterioration, lead time, weather holding cost, ordering cost, distance, travel cost, number of
capacity vehicles
Data Real life Real life/simulated/literature Real life/simulated Real life/bench mark problems
Location Developed/developing Mostly developed countries Mostly developed countries Mostly developed countries
countries
Desired Optimal forecast Harvest schedule Retrieval policy/ordering policy Routes for vehicles
outcome
Performance MAPE, RMSE, MME Benchmark from literature Benchmark from literature Benchmark from literature
evaluation
Main
Concentration Policy making Revenue Revenue/customer satisfaction Revenue/penalty cost
Audience Public policy makers Farmers Retailers/wholesalers Wholesalers/transporters
Limitation Grouping and aggregate Important factors such as No consensus on inventory Deterioration rate not included,
forecast demand, maturation, etc. are policy, retrieval policy, other variables not included
missing. Lack of efficient deterioration rate not properly
solution technique addressed
Publication Economics journals OR/production journals OM/OR journals Transportation journals
focus
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