Anastasiadis Foivos, Apostolidou Ioanna, Michailidis Anastasios
Department of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541-24 Thessaloniki, Greece.
Foods. 2020 Apr 26;9(5):539. doi: 10.3390/foods9050539.
Sustainable food supply chains are complex systems involving several stakeholders, processes, flow of goods/materials and information. The value generated in combination with the contradictory agendas among actors makes any groundwork for future research a challenging endeavor. Hence, an end-to-end mapping of the food supply chain under examination is a vital prerequisite for the design of a comprehensive research framework. This study exemplified such a mapping approach in the Greek sustainable tomato supply chain, providing significant insights for an impactful research agenda. Data were obtained from secondary sectoral sources and open interviews with key players across the supply chain-covering all its main stages, i.e., production, packaging, storing, transportation, wholesaling, and retailing. The findings are summarized in three supply chain maps that illustrate the areas concerning sustainability, value chain and stakeholders. These maps synthesize a bigger picture of the supply chain that reveals the complicated interactions among its actors, the hidden bottlenecks in the flow of information and the areas that need deeper exploration. Its fundamental implication is the design of a targeted research framework, underlying the main priorities of the Greek tomato supply chain and eventually the Greek agri-food sector.
可持续食品供应链是复杂的系统，涉及多个利益相关者、流程、货物/材料流动和信息。参与者之间相互矛盾的议程所产生的价值，使得未来研究的任何基础工作都成为一项具有挑战性的任务。因此，对所研究的食品供应链进行端到端映射，是设计全面研究框架的重要前提。本研究在希腊可持续番茄供应链中举例说明了这种映射方法，为一个有影响力的研究议程提供了重要见解。数据来自二级部门来源以及对供应链各关键参与者的公开访谈，涵盖了供应链的所有主要阶段，即生产、包装、储存、运输、批发和零售。研究结果总结在三张供应链地图中，这些地图展示了与可持续性、价值链和利益相关者有关的领域。这些地图综合呈现了供应链的整体情况，揭示了其参与者之间复杂的互动、信息流动中的隐藏瓶颈以及需要深入探索的领域。其根本意义在于设计一个有针对性的研究框架，该框架基于希腊番茄供应链乃至希腊农业食品部门的主要优先事项。
