Short food supply chain between micro/small farms and restaurants

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the strength and weakness connected to the implementation of a local food logistics services, designed to facilitate and enable the use of local food among restaurants. Design/methodology/approach A total of 60 restaurateurs located in a small Italian city and 100 owners of micro and small-sized farms, located within a 30 km radius from the city, have been interviewed. The collected data have been analysed through descriptive analysis and Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests for differences between gender, production type and business size. Findings The results agree with existing literature: poor communication and an unstructured logistics limit the interaction among actors. However, significant for the purpose, the data show that producers are interested in expanding their market and restaurateurs are interested in a broader supply of local products, and they both open to a logistics service that improves the supply of local food. Research limitations/implications The following exploratory study is based on a sample of farmers and restaurants in a specific area so the results could not be generalised in a national/international context. Practical implications The logistics service objective is the promotion of a sustainable territory development in support of the social economy values. Originality/value The study investigates this issue focussing on a practical solution of local food distribution system among restaurants. The logistics service tends to solve the logistics criticalities maintaining the principles of the short food supply chain.

Benefit Optimization of Short Food Supply Chains for Organic Products: A Simulation-Based Approach

“…The basic rationale for addressing the research subject includes an insufficient theoretical foundation for SFSCs, the lack of theoretical frameworks and backgrounds with a particular emphasis on ecological products, and the lack of simulation studies related to the optimization of activities and opportunities to achieve benefits in the implementation of the SFSC strategy, in which the starting point and leader is a producer of food products. Similar themes were found in the literature, but they do not discuss the scope and methods used as widely as we do here [9,14].…”

“…The related SFSC literature [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] allowed us to identify a research gap. The basic rationale for addressing the research subject includes an insufficient theoretical foundation for SFSCs, the lack of theoretical frameworks and backgrounds with a particular emphasis on ecological products, and the lack of simulation studies related to the optimization of activities and opportunities to achieve benefits in the implementation of the SFSC strategy, in which the starting point and leader is a producer of food products.…”

Social media for interactions with customers within the short food supply chain: the case of the SKIN project

“…SFSCs display an extensive creativity: 'direct selling, box schemes, farmers' markets, pick-your-own, on-farm sales, consumer cooperatives, direct internet sales, community supported agriculture, and e-commerce' (Giampietri et al, 2016). In addition, a recent work presents an exploratory study investigating another channel that is local food logistics services implemented to distribute local food to restaurants: then, the platform provides logistics facilities focusing on local farms that strengthen the direct relation and knowledge exchange between farmers and consumers (Paciarotti and Torregiani, 2018). Indeed, farmers try to decrease dependency on retail and to avoid 'unidentified' supply chains thus promoting direct sales to consumers (Wubben et al, 2013).…”

A decision support system to facilitate collaborative supply of food cooperatives

“…The authors conclude that high costs associated with distributing food from many small-scale producers to consumers are a major barrier to long-term success of such systems. Strengths and weaknesses associated with the implementation of local food logistics services in Italy are analysed in Paciarotti and Torregiani (2018). Focussing on local deliveries to restaurants, the authors state that interaction between actors is hindered by poor communication and unstructured processes.…”