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4124. Food network design with quality deterioration considerations: an application to a perishable food supply chain

Invited abstract in session WA-13: Food Supply Chains, stream Secure & Sustainable Food Supply.

Wednesday, 8:30-10:00
Room: 15 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Junhan Zhang
Operations Research and Logistics, Wageningen University & Research
2. Peter Kirst
Wageningen University & Research
3. Sander De Leeuw
Wageningen University & Research
4. G.D.H. (Frits) Claassen
Operations Research and Logistics, Wageningen University

Abstract

Given the increasing demand for freshness, the need to reduce food waste, and to ensure food safety, it is crucial to consider quality deterioration processes in the (re)design of food supply chains.
Past developments in food supply chains focussed foremost on efficiency and economic profitability, resulting in large-scale, centralized processing facilities. This has become a liability as efficiency in large-scale processing limits product differentiation and flexibility. Decentralised, (upstream) pre-processing, and improved pre-treatments can affect product deterioration in an early stage and will result in more diverse and intermediate product flows that can be used in existing and new value chains and provide new markets.
To identify the benefits of alternative supply chain structures, we propose a generic model based on mixed-integer linear programming. The modelling structures are applicable to a broad variety of different (food) supply chains. Both, network design aspects and gradual quality deterioration processes are incorporated.
We illustrate the applicability of the concept from an existing fruit supply chain in China. The results show that decentralized pre-processing can mitigate quality deterioration processes. In addition, a decentralised supply chain leads to improved sustainability from a social point of view since smallholder farmers in emerging economies can increase their income without affecting the profits of downstream stakeholders.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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