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Food is vital to human life. Therefore, ensuring its safety as it moves from producer to consumer in food supply chains (FSCs) is essential. This can be achieved through the use of food traceability technology which enables track and trace of produce within a FSC. Recently, blockchain technology (BCT) has shown great potential to enhance traceability in FSCs, owing to its ability to securely store data in a decentralised and tamper-evident manner. However, it appears that research on blockchain-enabled food traceability exists primarily within the context of large FSCs, whilst scarce for local FSCs in which traceability is often an inefficient and manual process. Given this background, this exploratory research is carried out, to investigate whether a blockchain-enabled system can be used to improve traceability in local FSCs. To do this, we (i) collaborate with Oranjezicht City Farm Market (OZCFM) - a farmers market in Cape Town, the smallholder farmers that supply OZCFM with fresh local produce and the OZCFM patrons that purchase the produce; (ii) map out the local FSC by conducting observations and running surveys with the aforementioned actors; (iii) design, develop and pilot FoodPrint - a web based and blockchain-enabled food traceability application. During the pilot within the OZCFM-related local FSC, FoodPrint is used to capture data on the harvest, transportation and storage of produce; and reveal produce provenance at destination by scanning of supplier-produce specific quick response (QR) codes. We find that FoodPrint provides tamper-evident traceability and authentic transparency of produce related data to the local FSC actors. Further, we note that scanning a FoodPrint QR code for produce provenance does not enhance the consumers trust of the local FSC, as it pre-exists. This implies that local FSCs with existing and functional trust mechanisms do not benefit from trust-enhancing mechanisms such as blockchain-enabled traceability. Future work may consider data privacy in FSCs and automating FSC data entry to reduce the risk of fraud.

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to offer a consolidative approach in exploring the potential contribution of digital technologies in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) for the sustainable performance of food supply chain business, through the circular economy concepts. As a single case study, this qualitative, interpretivist research was based on one of the largest food producers in the United Kingdom. The research utilises semi-structured interviews and applies thematic analysis to offer rich insights into SSCM challenges and their relationship with the business performance, through ten in-depth interviews. Findings derived from thematic analysis of the interview transcripts suggest four main critical success factors underpinning SSCM practices and businesses performance – i.e. business continuity, waste reduction, performance measurement approach, and organisational learning, which could use the help of digital technologies to improve. This led to seven propositions to be addressed in the future research. This research offers real, practical insights into SSCM challenges, within the context of food supply chain and explores the potential of digital technologies in overcoming them. Accordingly, the primary contribution of this work is grounded in the identification of critical success factors in SSCM for Food Supply Chains (FSC). Hence, this work contributes further to the literature on SSCM, as well as circular economy, by providing a study of a business in the context of the highly pertinent and valuable food industry.

Cette thèse propose trois essais sur les perturbations tout au long de la chaîne de distribution des produits alimentaires à haute valeur nutritionnelle. Elle contribue à notre compréhension des menaces liées à la réalisation des objectifs de sécurité alimentaire dans les pays émergents. Contribuant à l'analyse économique de la chaîne de distribution et des questions agricoles, la thèse est fondée sur différents éléments théoriques relatifs à la chaîne de valeur, la croissance du marché, la transmission des prix et met en œuvre des techniques d'économétrie appliquée (économétrie des données de panel, économétrie des séries temporelles) à partir de base de données originales. L'objectif est d'analyser les sources et l'ampleur des perturbations dans la chaîne de distribution des produits à haute valeur nutritionnelle.La première partie de la thèse analyse les perturbations sur les marchés des produits alimentaires à haute valeur non-transformés et moins transformés. Le Chapitre 2 examine les perturbations en amont et en aval de la chaîne de distribution de ces produits. Le Chapitre 3 étend l’analyse du Chapitre 2 en prenant en compte les perturbations relatives aux produits ayant subi un niveau de transformation élevé. Dans les deux chapitres, les perturbations sont analysées en termes de changement de prix et de quantité, à la fois en amont et en aval. Le changement de quantité est considéré comme une perturbation préliminaire alors que celui de prix est secondaire. Utilisant le marché de São Paulo comme sujet d'étude, le Chapitre 4 analyse les effets du prix du diesel sur les différents segments de la chaîne de distribution des produits alimentaires à haute valeur nutritionnelle. Un modèle à correction d’erreur (MCE) qui prend en considération les effets des prix entre les différents produits est estimé pour vérifier si les chocs provenant du prix du diesel sont plus élevés en amont qu'en aval. Ce chapitre est analytiquement fondé sur la théorie de la transmission des prix.Les résultats des Chapitres 2 et 3 montrent que les désastres climatiques sont des sources dominantes de perturbation de la chaîne de distribution des produits alimentaires à haute valeur nutritionnelle. Leur effet est négatif pour tous les produits analysés, bien que l'ampleur de perturbation varie d’un produit à l’autre. Les résultats du modèle à correction d’erreur (MCE) du Chapitre 4 montrent que les effets du prix du diesel sur les prix des produits alimentaires à haute valeur nutritionnelle sont positifs et significatifs, alors que les effets en aval sont plus élevés que ceux en amont. Les résultats de la thèse ont des implications importantes pour le développement et la mise en œuvre des politiques d’alimentation dans les pays émergents. Le Chapitre 1, introduction générale, justifie l'étude des différences entre l'ampleur de perturbation en amont et celle en aval, et situe la thèse dans les littératures existantes. Une conclusion générale est proposée en Chapitre 5 avec des propositions pour de futurs travaux de recherche. / This dissertation presents three essays on disruptions along nutritional high-value food supply chains in emerging countries. It extends our understanding of threats to the attainment of food security in emerging countries. With a contribution to agricultural economics, the dissertation relies on value chain, market growth and price transmission theories and applies both panel data and time series econometric techniques to analyse the sources and magnitudes of the disruption of nutritional high-value food chains.The first part of the dissertation examines disruptions in unprocessed and minimally processed nutritional high-value food markets. Chapter 2 examines upstream and downstream disruptions along these food chains. Chapter 3 extends the analysis in Chapter 2 by assessing how disruptions change when nutritional high-value foods are highly processed. For each of the two chapters, disruptions are studied in terms of changes in upstream and downstream quantities and prices, with the disruption of quantity considered primary while that of prices is secondary.Using the São Paulo food market as a case study, Chapter 4 analyses the effect of diesel price shocks on different segments of the nutritional high-value food supply chain. A Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) that takes into account upstream and downstream cross-price effects is estimated to ascertain if diesel price shocks are higher downstream based on price transmission theory.The results of Chapters 2 and 3 show that climatological disasters are the most dominant source of disruption of nutritional high-value food supply chains and the direction of impact is negative for all foods under study. The magnitude of disruption, however, varies by food. From the VECM results in Chapter 4, we see that the price of diesel has a positive and significant effect on food prices, while the effects downstream are lower than those upstream. These results have significant implications for the design and implementation of food policies in emerging countries.As a general introduction, Chapter 1 justifies the need to study upstream and downstream differences in the magnitude of supply chain disruption, by situating the dissertation in the existing supply chain and food price transmission literature. Chapter 5 concludes the study and offers suggestions for future research.

The food supply chain has gained impulse over the past few years induced by the rising global demand for food; therefore, much emphasis is placed upon examining this class of supply chains. It also faces constant production, storage, and distribution challenges, wherein the key link for proper operation is the farmer, who engages in the agricultural sector, heavily impacted by low crop productivity, which interfer with economic development at a national level. Consequently, it is important to assess those farmers who belong to micro and small enterprises in the agricultural sector. Due to the characteristics of the population, a nonprobability sampling technique was used to assess micro and small cocoa producers in La Convención Province, Cusco, Peru. To such end, a snowball sampling model with distance boundaries was adopted because the population is unknown and hard to reach.

This master thesis project aims to explore ICT solutions in agriculture and food systems, and to analyze their sustainability aspects. As a result, a comprehensive picture of existing and coming ICT solutions along the food chain is presented based on extensive literature review. Their enabled impacts are qualitatively analyzed for selected aspects of food security and environmental sustainability. Moreover, a few of ICT enabled solutions’ GHG emissions reduction potentials in agricultural and land use sector in the year 2030 are estimated quantitatively, ranging from 9 Mt to 31 Mt, depending on assumptions (6 to 50 Mt after sensitivity analysis). These results, which cannot be seen as a representation of the overall ICT potential to enable emission reductions in agriculture and the food chain, are discussed in light of earlier suggested overall ICT potentials in this area. Moreover, limitations and uncertainties of the study are further clarified. Overall, the qualitative analysis identifies a high number of solutions for ICT in the agriculture and food systems with an assumed potential to promote sustainable development. However, due to the lack of published quality data for these solutions, the predicted sustainability potential cannot be accurately estimated. / Detta masterprojekt syftar till att utforska IKT-lösningar inom jordbruks- och livsmedelssystem och att analysera sina hållbarhetsaspekter. Som ett resultat presenteras en omfattande bild av befintliga och kommande IKT-lösningar längs livsmedelskedjan utifrån en omfattande litteraturöversikt. Deras kvalificerade effekter analyseras kvalitativt för utvalda aspekter av livsmedelssäkerhet och miljöhållbarhet. Dessutom beräknas potentialen för minskning av växthusgasutsläppet inom jordbruket och markanvändningen år 2030 kvantitativt för ett fåtal IKT-lösningar, till att vara mellan 21 Mt till 76 Mt (6.11 till 49.6Mt efter känslighetsanalys), beroende på antaganden. Dessa resultat, som inte kan anses representera IKT´s fulla potential att bidra till utsläppsminskningar inom jordbruks- och livsmedelssystemen, diskuteras med bakgrund av tidigare estimat av IKT´s övergripande resultat inom detta område. Därutöver klargörs begränsningar och osäkerheter i studien. Sammantaget identifierar den kvalitativa analysen ett stort antal lösningar för IKT i jordbruks- och livsmedelssystemen med en antagen potential att främja hållbar utveckling. På grund av bristen på publicerade kvalitetsdata för dessa lösningar kan dock den förutspådda hållbarhetspotentialen inte beräknas exakt.

Yes / The purpose of this paper is to signpost the genesis of food security and associated factors such that organisations, enterprises, policy makers and interested stakeholders can seek to explore and understand this important societal issue. The challenges that food security poses are eclectic in nature and cut through country, society, organisation and individual boundaries. Only through identifying these factors – hence identifying underlying factors of food waste and usage of information within food supply chains to untangle them – can we adopt enterprise interventions in order to initiate and mitigate food security risk. As a viewpoint piece, there is no empirical work to report in this paper. An exploratory review of the literature has allowed for the extraction of food security concerns that need the attention of stakeholders across the enterprise to ensure robust food supply chains can be are created, maintained and sustained through a better understanding and usage of information, knowledge and data This paper articulates six constructs that underpin the challenges of establishing food security. It is suggested that information relating to factors may support decision-makers within communities, organisations and enterprises to better understand these factors that then contribute towards enhanced food security. Relevant strategies or policies can then emerge and be developed such that strategic as well as operational interventions can be prioritised across national, regional or industry level. Underpinning the above, the waste within and across the food supply chain contributes to the six factors, also highlighting where additional focus may need to be applied to sustain food supply chains. This paper is a position paper that does not offer factual insight but rather highlights a direction of thought that others can consider exploring as part of wider research agendas in the topical area where enterprise, organisational, and information-based contributions may support the development of strategy-led food security policy. This paper provides reassuring insights that will help decision and policy makers assemble their thoughts when it comes to prioritising their communications and interventions amongst organisational/enterprise-level stakeholder groups involved in food security and food supply chain contexts. This paper has highlighted the need for more research around the human and organisational factors that are identified as both underpinning the need for food security and, as drivers of waste throughout the food supply chain. Indeed, there is further work needed to highlight the inter-relationships that exist and, which then feed into resulting interventions. To raise the importance of food security amongst differing stakeholder community groups at the organisational and enterprise level.

Since the introduction of sustainable development, industries have witnessed significant sustainability challenges. Literature shows that the food industry is concerned about its need for efficient and effective management practices in dealing with perishability and the requirements for conditioned storage and transport of food products that effect the environment. Hence, the environmental part of sustainability demonstrates its significance in this industrial sector. Despite this, there has been little research into environmentally sustainable inventory management of deteriorating items. This thesis presents mathematical modelling based research for production inventory systems in perishable food supply chains. In this study, multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming models are developed to determine economically and environmentally optimal production and inventory decisions for a two-echelon supply chain. The supply chain consists of single sourcing suppliers for raw materials and a producer who operates under a make-to-stock or make-to-order strategy. The demand facing the producer is non-stationary stochastic in nature and has requirements in terms of service level and the remaining shelf life of the marketed products. Using data from the literature, numerical examples are given in order to test and analyse these models. The computational experiments show that operational adjustments in cases where emission and cost parameters were not strongly correlated with supply chain collaboration (where suppliers and a producer operate under centralised control), emissions are effectively reduced without a significant increase in cost. The findings show that assigning a high disposal cost, limit or high weight of importance to perished goods leads to appropriate reduction of expected waste in the supply chain with no major cost increase. The research has made contributions to the literature on sustainable production and inventory management; providing formal models that can be used as an aid to understanding and as a tool for planning and improving sustainable production and inventory control in supply chains involving deteriorating items, in particular with perishable food supply chains.

Abstract Background: Consumer interest and demand for healthy and ecologically produced local food has led to a high market demand that local production cannot meet. Product attributes of perishability and short life cycles ensure that even local supply chains are challenging to manage. This increases potential for risks occurrence in an Organic Food Supply Chain (OFSC) especially with unreliable supply of products. Small and established food retailers import organic food products from across the world. Custom delays, high transport charges, commodity costs and regulatory requirements are associated with food imports. This renders OFSCs complex and vulnerable to disruptions or breakdowns that require appropriate strategies to identify and mitigate risks. Purpose: To gain an overall insight of risks mitigation in OFSCs. The purpose of this thesis is to assess risks affecting suppliers and retailers of organic food and propose risk mitigation strategies to prevent or minimise supply chain breakdowns. Method: This qualitative study utilizes a case study strategy involving seven case firms and seven research respondents. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary secondary data. The analysis of the empirical findings is conducted by cross analysing empirical findings of respective case firms and then emerging patterns are formulated into a general framework. Conclusions: Low conversion rates of farms for organic production, high costs of investments and regulatory requirements have contributed to prevailing production risks that partly cause low organic output. Other risks identified that could disrupt the food chain under study include sourcing, warehousing, demand, price, financial and institutional risks. Mitigation strategies proposed include production procedures, CAP, supply chain flexibility, supply chain visibility, certification, diversification of retail channels, brand image building, horizontal & vertical cooperation and buyer-supplier relations.

The study has defined the position with regard to existing and evolving United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) legislation, world trade agreements and institutions, global trade in chicken meat and market Quality Assurance (QA) standards in a series of peer-reviewed published papers and working papers. The development of global food supply chains can be a key driver in the harmonisation of international legislation, product and private assurance standards. Indeed compliance with legislation and retailer requirements has been a key market driver in the development of private assurance standards. The key objectives of the research were to examine current assurance schemes within the integrated poultry meat supply chain and the influence of regulation and external market drivers within the integrated poultry meat supply chain; develop and test a QA model for the poultry meat supply chain with a view to both baseline and higher level standards including the development of a business benchmarking system utilising a pre-requisite programme (PRP) and key performance indicators (KPI); and to assess the ability of the QA model to deliver regulatory and policy compliance whilst meeting varied business and market needs for an internationally traded product. This study has shown that a QA model is capable of providing a framework within which the poultry meat supply chain can operate. The legislative and performance requirements have been translated into quantifiable performance indicators which can be used to measure supply chain performance. This can assist differentiation of products at the point of consumption and give a quantifiable measure of the extrinsic value that has been added. This approach will therefore aid the communication of the benefits of differing methods of poultry meat production and afford the consumer the opportunity to make a more informed choice when purchasing meat products.