Benchmarking the poultry meat supply chain

Impacts of Collaborative Partnership on the Performance of Cold Supply Chains of Agriculture and Foods: Literature Review

Collaboration in a supply chain continuously proves its role in increasing the performance of supply chains, which attracts the attention of both academia and practitioners, specifically, how to generate higher impacts of collaborative partnership on the performance of supply chains and measure them. In cold supply chains of agriculture and foods, the vital need for collaboration becomes even more significant to improve the performance. Therefore, this paper reviews relevant articles derived from the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Via the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), the research team classifies the types of collaborative partnership in cold agriculture and food supply chains, issues of the literature when analyzing collaboration impacts on the performance of CSCs of agriculture and foods, and finally, the opportunities for the future research to boost the collaboration practices in these cold chains. Following this sequence, 102 articles were eventually extracted for the systematic review to identify themes for not only addressing the review questions but also highlighting future research opportunities for both development of partnership integration and performance of the cold chains of agriculture and foods.

Using integrated weighted IRP-Fuzzy TISM approach towards evaluation of initiatives to harmonise Halal standards

Purpose

Multiplicity and conflicting Halal standards involve unnecessary repetition of testing for demonstrating the Halal integrity of the process and the product, thus making it difficult for the Halal commodities to get traction in international markets. The purpose of this paper is to suggest initiatives to facilitate harmonisation of Halal standards as to eliminate trade barrier of Halal and to assure the availability of Halal consumables to larger masses.

Design/methodology/approach

Ranking of the initiatives for the harmonisation of Halal standards taking in consideration the costs of accomplishment and associated benefits obtained has been done through the application of integrated Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP) and Fuzzy Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (Fuzzy TISM). This integrated methodology with the weighted criteria have refined the value of the net dominance of different variables, thereby increasing the efficacy of IRP in decision making.

Findings

Findings suggest that strengthening the strategic coordination and collaboration among competent HCBs is a significant initiative. This initiative needs to be undertaken to mitigate the conflict between HCBs. This necessitates to develop a common platform in making the collective decision for effectively controlling Halal businesses. Moreover, recognising competent HCBs will prompt the effective implementation and execution of Halal standards across the supply chain, and ease the global trading of Halal products. A framework has been conceptualised to enable harmonisation of Halal standards which intimates to develop globally agreed protocols for Halal practices.

Practical implications

The framework presented may act as a prelude to harmonise Halal standards and may positively affect the international trade of Halal commodities by phasing out the discriminatory and market-impeding standards.

Originality/value

A harmonised system may provide correct information to the stakeholders and may help in making an informed decision.

A tool to benchmark the food safety management systems in Greece

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and implement methods to benchmark the food safety and hygiene of different companies, regardless the management systems applied.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected using a balanced questionnaire which was based on the fishbone model of Ishikawa. The questionnaire includes general questions about the company and 25 questions about personnel, machinery, materials, methods and environment. It was applied to 202 food industries, 42 food retail businesses and 49 food service companies. The data were collected from interviews of industry people related to food safety and from audits of business facilities. The benchmarking methods were descriptive statistics, radar charts, cluster analysis and association rules.

Findings

The radar charts were used to benchmark food companies on safety and hygiene. Food companies can be evaluated with this benchmarking tool with a balanced score of maximum 100 points.

Originality/value

This benchmarking tool could be useful for food control authorities, clusters of companies and certification bodies.

Development of Holistic Framework Incorporating Collaboration, Supply-Demand Synchronization, Traceability and Vertical Integration in Agri-Food Supply Chain

Successful implementation of food supply chains in improving the productivity and operational efficiency by some companies made many other firms and researchers courteous about this fast developing field. For successful strategies, organizations in agri-food business are aiming to bring all its stakeholders in close cooperation. The agri-food supply chain aims at optimal warehousing and location design, supply-demand synchronization, checking price variations and ultimately minimizing waste and improving productivity at every stage leveraging Information Technology (IT). This research reviews the supply chain status in agri-food sector, categorizes available literature, assesses the influential articles, and proposes the holistic framework in agri-food supply chain. From the literature review, it is observed that the research articles have addressed agri-food supply chain up to a certain point and confined to the apt ideas of supply projections, demand projections, supply-demand disparity, traceability, collaborations etc. There is a need for extensive research to reconsider warehouse and location design, supply-demand projections and gap analysis, transshipment strategies and traceability in an integrated manner. The present study proposes holistic framework addressing the issues of supply-demand synchronization, warehouse design, transportation optimization, traceability, vertical integration and farmer’s credit facility.