Creating loops with value recovery: empirical study of fresh food supply chains

Abstract

In an era of increased scarcity of resources and pollution, the concept of the circular economy is re-emerging to steer supply chains towards more sustainable business practices. The potential of value recovery provides opportunities for the creation of circular supply chains. Reverse flows and value recovery processes are scarcely studied in the context of fresh food supply chains. In this paper, we report findings from an empirical study of three food networks regarding the nature of circular flows, as well as factors that affect their creation. These networks differ in their structure and organisation of value recovery processes.We analyse value recovery in light of following elements: product residual value, quantities available for recovery, value from recovery, and markets for recovered products. We show that 1) financial value from recovery is a necessary condition for profitability of operations of any value recovery process in fresh food supply chains, but not for the occurrence of the corresponding loop itself; 2) reuse and remanufacturing loops likely feed into alternative markets, while recycling loops likely feed back into fresh food supply chains.

Artificial intelligence and food security: swarm intelligence of AgriTech drones for smart AgriFood operations

“…Also, that is the reason, why relevant solutions should be targeted to specific problems for AgriFood supply chains. AgriFood challenges can be vast and variable (Vlajic, Mijailovic, and Bogdanova 2018) such as perishability of the production, production seasonality, variability in quality and quantity, long production throughput time and specialised transportation requirements (Moazzam et al 2018) and also associated variable risks (Wang, Li, and Shi 2012). The SDGs highlight specific goals for "Food Security" in order to show the importance and the unique requirements and tailored solutions required for AgriFood production problems.…”

Understanding circular economy implementation in the agri-food supply chain: the case of an Indonesian organic fertiliser producer

“…The lack of regulation on circular economy implementation from the government might hinder the success of implementation, as it can also affect the aspect of incentives for supply chain actors [54]. In relation to the dimensions of circular economy, the impact of these aspects could be addressed from technological and environmental aspects, and then the governmental and economic aspects, in the manner of a bottom-up approach [19]. Through this approach, the required technology, environmental impact, required government policies and possible economic benefits and barriers could be derived as further measures to ensure the required societal and behavioural aspects.…”

“…The majority of them, 23 articles out of 35, utilise the reuse, remanufacturing and recycling process. There is also an approach by composting organic wastes to become fertiliser [16][17][18][19]. The fertiliser can then be used in the farming processes, which can be done to either produce feeding for livestock farming or food sources for the plant-based food product supply chain.…”

“…Another possible approach for implementing circular economy is by giving the waste to other industries to be utilised, such as the utilisation of pig blood and butter [16]. There is also a method to resell the products without the whole remanufacturing processes [21], and, finally, there is the sustainable use of resources through energy and resource recovery [19,22]. The number of these approaches is far lower than the mostly used reuse-recycle-remanufacture approach.…”

O PAPEL DA LOGÍSTICA REVERSA NA MITIGAÇÃO DO DESPERDÍCIO EM CADEIAS DE SUPRIMENTOS AGROALIMENTARES/The role of reverse logistics in the mitigation of waste in agricultural supply chains

“…As principais contribuições na LR concentram-se no desenvolvimento do conceito de valor marginal do tempo, nos modelos matemáticos, na otimização dos fluxos de retorno entre fornecedor e varejista, no desenvolvimento de novos modelos de cadeias de suprimentos em circuito fechado e na criação de novos loops abertos em setores transversais. Poucos estudos se concentram na investigação empírica de fluxos circulares nas redes de alimentos (VLAJIC et al, 2018). Kinobe et al (2015) mostraram que os alimentos constituem a maior quantidade de lixo depositado em aterros (39%), seguida dos produtos vegetais (23%), e que os produtos recuperados em aterros são: plásticos, polietileno, macio, têxteis, papel e metal com respectivos porcentagens: 31%, 37%, 15%, 12% e 5%.…”