Logistics Risk in Agriculture

Featured Article | Managing Logistics Risks in Agricultural Supply Chains Along International Corridors

Jean Francois Arvis, Ian Gillson and Charles Kunaka, The World Bank

FARMD (January 2013) | Agricultural production is synonymous with uncertainty often by virtue of its exposure to weather; the unpredictability of disease and pests; and, the seasonality of harvest and market cycles. Agriculture is also dependent on supply chains to cope with the geographical separation of inputs, farming and consumption. Agricultural supply chains comprise input supply (seeds, fertilizer, energy), production, post-harvest, storage, processing, marketing and distribution. These elements along the ‘farm-to-fork’ supply chain increasingly span national borders and involve inputs from a wide range of public and private sector participants. These participants typically support three major types of flows in the supply chain, namely: i) physical products (from input suppliers to farmers, farmers to traders, traders to buyers, buyers to consumers); ii) financial (credit, payments, insurance); and, iii) information (prices, transport opportunities).

Logistics are a critical part of these flows, and weaknesses in them are often a major source of risk in agricultural supply chains that affect the availability, timing, traceability and quality of goods. Until recently food supply performance was primarily understood in terms of transportation costs for inputs and outputs. Today the complexity of supply chains is more fully recognized and its performance also assessed in terms of reliability.

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Gerrit Uitbeijerse, Senior Cargo Expert and Master Mariner, Global Cargo Consultancy Management | At Global Cargo Consultancy Management, we are regularly saddened by the fact that many people in the agricultural sector are not familiar with today’s logistical requirements in regard to care of cargo and loss prevention.

The owner of the goods being transported has a legal duty of care towards said goods. In practice, this has meant that agricultural products such as coffee, cocoa, rice and other commodities that have to be transported over long distances often suffer risks that lead to quality deterioration and ultimately large claims to the cargo companies...Read More

Techane Bosona, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences-SLU, Uppsala | Worldwide, the distance and tonnage of food shipment have increased during the past decades. For example, the distance food travelled at the beginning of 21st century had increased by 50% in UK and by 25% in USA from what it travelled in the 1980s (Halweil, 2002). The increase in food transport not only has negative impact on logistics cost and environment but also has increased risk for food quality, safety, security, and traceability...Read More

Dr. Paul T. Kidd, Cheshire Henbury, United Kingdom | In a world where fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables is regularly shipped using road, rail, sea, and air transport, often over long distances, increasingly across international borders, and in some circumstances, from one continent to another, it is natural to ask what can be done to reduce the risk of quality losses that are an inevitable part of such transportation. With Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) becoming increasingly ubiquitous, it is also natural to ask if these technologies might be used in some way to reduce the risk of quality losses...Read More

The Economist Corporate Network (October 2012) | Ross O'Brien, Director of the Economist Corporate Network in Hong Kong spoke to Johann Poppenbeck, VP Product Management at DSI on the evolving role of data and technology management strategies in the logistics and supply chain industry. Watch Now

Global Student Forum 2012 (June 2012) | Who's benefiting - and who is losing out - in the global supply chains that put food on our supermarket shelves and ultimately on our plates? How do these supply chains impact upon poverty and hunger? What is the role of supermarkets and consumers... Watch Now