Food Supply Chain Management Case Study

Issues in Food Supply Chain Management

Managing food supply chain is a difficult takes because this sector involves a diverse range of distinct stake holders such as farmers, commission agent, processor and distributers. Further, unlike developed countries Indian agriculture is far more complex and difficult to manage because of its unorganised nature (Parwez 2014). While in present day farmers are demanding better price for their produce and consumers are willing to pay reasonable price. Therefore, to solve this problem we need to understand the issues involved in this process as explained in below.

I) Market Information

Sharing of market information among supply members is a complex issue in food supply chain as there are many stake holders

According to the World Bank statistics, published in May 2014, up to a third of the world's food is wasted. Out of these, 400 to 500 calories per person per day in developing world and 1,500 calories per person in developed world is wasted. At the same time about 2 billion people in the world are malnourished and less fed (Kim, 2014).

In developing countries like India, food is wasted in farms or on the way to market due to poor infrastructure and storage facilities. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has explained that around more than 40 percent of the “food loss,” meaning food that fails to make the journey from farm to fork in developing countries due to impassable roads and inadequate storage.

Therefore we need to develop a better supply chain management by creating adequate storing facility, good transporting system and better infrastructure. Then only we can prevent economic and environment problems which create through food losses.

III) Quality and Safety of

Hence, farmers can get reasonable price for their produce as well as consumers can get the product at an affordable price. But in a developing country like India, all these necessities cannot come up on their own (Chand, 2012). While in India agricultural market has a long history of inefficient running, which can be imagine from the report of Royal Commission on Agriculture 1928. It had noted in the report that ‘the agricultural development in India has done much to improve the quality and to increase the quantity of the cultivator’s outturn but it cannot be said that they have been able to give the cultivators substantial help in securing the best possible financial return for his improved quality and his increased outturn’ and also noted that complain had received about the disability of market where cultivator labour were selling his produce. Therefore, strong agricultural market policies are needed through the development polices of the government so that market can function smoothly and all the stake holders involves in the marketing process can get the