The diploma thesis deals with the issues linked to transport of foodstuffs from East Asia to Europe. The theoretical part contains a comprehensive overview on international trade with foodstuff and food logistics. The practical part is an analysis of transport process of rice between the two regions.

This diploma thesis compares alternative distribution systems in food logistics focusing on the level of supply services, the level of logistic costs and the impact of logistics transfers on the environment. In the thesis are mapped alternative distribution systems in logistics mainly agricultural production across the world.

The aim of this thesis was the analysis of the conditions for driving an international transportation company in European Union. The most important general conditions were analysed as well as the specific conditions that have to be kept in company Unitrans Bohemia because of the transported product´s character. Another aim of this work was the transportation of liquid foodstuff analysis, associated regulations and problems.

Inefficient road transportation causes unnecessary costs and polluting emissions. This problem is even more severe in refrigerated transportation, in which temperature control is used to guarantee the quality of the products. Organizing logistics cooperatively can help decrease both the environmental and the economic impacts. In Joint Route Planning (JRP) cooperation, suppliers and customers jointly optimize routing decisions so that cost and emissions are minimized. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) cooperation extends JRP cooperation by optimizing routing and inventory planning decisions simultaneously. However, in addition to their economic advantages, VMI and JRP may also yield environmental benefits. To test this assertion, we perform a case study on cooperation between a number of supermarket chains in the Netherlands. The data of this case study are analyzed to quantify both the economic and environmental benefits of implementing cooperation via JRP and VMI, using vehicle routing and an inventory routing models. We found that JRP cooperation can substantially reduce cost and emissions compared with uncooperative routing. In addition, VMI cooperation can further reduce cost and emissions, but minimizing cost and minimizing emissions no longer result in the same solution and there is a trade-off to be made.

<p>  </p> <p>Managing agri-food supply systems (AFSS) is a complex task due to all the factors that are typically present in these systems, for example, perishability, long lead time from cultivation to consumption, seasonality, weather and yield uncertainty, fragmented structure of the industry, high demand- and price variability, contamination concerns, fragility, and high weight-to-value ratios. This research focuses specifically on crop-based perishable AFSS systems with independent farmers for which it is difficult to coordinate cultivation activities with upstream operations of the supply chain, and where it is not possible to decouple processing or distribution from harvesting operations by building on-farm inventory after harvest. Two main industries are considered as case studies: sugarcane and vegetables for the fresh market. In the sugarcane industry, two main problems are addressed in this research, the farms clustering and harvest sequencing problem, and the truck release control problem. The first problem is modeled as a bi-objective non-linear program that aims to maximize sugar output and minimize the maximum cluster diameter when clustering farms for harvesting, and a heuristic algorithm is developed to find a good set of non-dominated solutions. For the second problem, a stochastic model is developed to determine the optimal number of trucks to be released into the sugarcane harvest system considering randomness in key inputs. Finally, the third problem deals with the development of a demand and capacity sharing protocol to support horizontal collaboration among private distribution networks in the fresh vegetables industry based on a real-time truck-sharing system for the long-haul transport stage. The effectiveness of the protocol is tested by simulating its implementation to a collaborative network of six distributors, and the results show significant improvement in delivery times, long-haul transport costs, and total traveled distance.</p>

L'un des éléments qui caractérisent le processus de mondialisation de l'économie est le développement de la logistique du fret comme secteur stratégique pour déterminer les avantages concurrentiels des régions urbaines. Cette étude analyse le lien entre l'évolution du marché, la réorganisation de l'Etat et le développement des infrastructures logistiques urbaines. Le point d'entrée de cette analyse est l'étude des politiques qui ont produit et gouverné au fil du temps deux marchés alimentaires de gros européens : le MIN Rungis et les Marchés Généraux de Milan. Leur comparaison explique comment les changements structurels ont influencé leur évolution et pourquoi aujourd'hui deux marchés de gros qui étaient initialement très similaires d'un point de vue analytique différent, ont deux policy outcome très différents. En utilisant une approche théorique et méthodologique basée sur les contributions du néo-institutionnalisme historique et de l'économie politique urbaine, le rôle des groupes d'intérêts, des acteurs politiques, des règles politiques et du marché est éclairé. Ces facteurs sont liés entre eux pour expliquer la policy conversion observée pour le MIN Rungis et la policy drift dans le cas de Milan. Enfin, les processus politiques qui ont mené à ces résultats sont expliqués en termes de mécanismes causaux. L'analyse met en évidence le rôle central des règles de politique locale et du contexte politique dans la détermination de la capacité des groupes d'intérêt locaux à influencer les processus décisionnels, et l'effet de leur mobilisation sur le développement de ces infrastructures urbaines. / One of the elements that characterize the process of economic globalization is the development of freight logistics as a strategic sector to determine the competitive advantages of urban regions. This study analyses the link between market changes, state reorganisation and the development of urban logistics infrastructures. The entry point for this analysis is the study of the policies that have produced and governed over time two European wholesale food markets: the MIN Rungis and the General Markets of Milan. Their comparison explains how structural changes have influenced their evolution and why today two wholesale markets, which were initially very similar from an analytical point of view, have nowadays two very different policy outcomes. Using a theoretical and methodological approach based on the contributions of historical neo-institutionalism and urban political economy, the role of interest groups, political actors, political rules and the market is clarified. These factors are interrelated to explain the policy conversion observed for MIN Rungis and the policy drift in the case of Milan. Finally, the policy processes that led to these results are explained in terms of causal mechanisms. The analysis highlights the central role of local policy rules and political context in determining the ability of local interest groups to influence decision-making processes, and the effect of their mobilization on the development of these urban infrastructures.