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Quality traits desired by consumers may not be adequately captured by beef industry standards associated with grid or value‐based pricing alone. Aims to demonstrate this shortcoming by examining strategies of selected companies in North America at the four supply chain levels of cow‐calf genetics, feedlot feeding, processing, and retailing that have been proactive in producing desirable beef attributes efficiently to better meet consumer beef demand.

The vertical alliance between Ralphs retailing, Sunland Beef processing, and a handful of feedlots using narrowly defined beef genetics are examined to illustrate how consumer market research and coordination throughout the supply chain may address many shortcomings associated with current value‐based pricing of beef criteria.

Better information sharing and coordination between seedstock and retail industries could help assure that consumer preferences of beef palatability and consistency are met while meeting high production efficiency standards.

Cow‐calf, feedlot, and packing industries need to better track and manage information flows of genetic‐management paths from consumer to seedstock producer in order for the beef industry to be more competitive.

Experiences of our case companies suggest that the beef industry will need to look beyond the North American grid or value‐based pricing of beef in order to maintain or improve market share with competing pork and poultry sectors.

Presents a study of the procurement of beef by UK supermarkets. Investigates the hypothesis that a retailer’s choice of beef supplier is influenced by the transaction costs incurred in different supply relationships. Measures the relative importance of the transaction costs incurred by retailers as a result of concerns over quality consistency, traceability and farm animal welfare using conjoint analysis. Data for the conjoint analysis were collected through a postal survey of UK supermarket retailers. From the results, suggests that the information and monitoring costs arising from the need to ensure that beef supplies are of a consistent quality are relatively important influences on the choice of supplier, followed by the traceability of cattle, whether the beef originates from a farm assurance scheme and the price paid by the retailer. Also analyses procurement preferences of individual respondents, revealing some interesting differences between the retailers. Concludes that strategic alliance partnerships between retailers, processors and marketing groups composed of farmers may emerge as the method of vertical co‐ordination which minimizes transaction costs.

The livestock sector contributes significantly to the Brazilian economy, but also creates many environmental and social issues. To mitigate these problems and help counteract the effects of the growing production demand, it is essential to address the prevention of food loss and waste (FLW). Therefore, the aim of the present study is to identify the causes of FLW, model their interrelationships and determine their root causes for the Brazilian beef supply chain (SC).

16 causes are analysed using an integrated interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and matrix impact of cross-multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) methodology. ISM identified interrelationships among the causes and MICMAC determined the root causes of FLW.

The ISM highlights the “Lack of transportation infrastructures”, “Inadequate handling”, “Poor operational performance”, “Variety of products available in supermarkets” and “Unhealthy animals and outbreaks of disease” as the most influential causes and the MICMAC classifies them as the root causes of FLW in the Brazilian beef SC.

The results provide fundamental insights for researchers, practitioners and policymakers, by exploring which causes are more influential and which are the root causes, thereby assisting the SC members in the definition of suitable strategies to mitigate FLW.

This is the first empirical analysis of the interdependencies between the causes of FLW in the beef SC.

Outlines the role of the Meat Livestock Commission in dealing with the BSE/CJD crisis in the UK meat industry. It covers the re‐launch of British beef, the history of the BSE crisis, the decline of the export market for beef and the increasingly political nature of the world beef and meat markets. In addition, the article assesses the impact of supermarkets, government and environmental concerns and the development of this key industry. The issue of reputation alongside natural products is considered and the complexities of a fragmented market. Suggests that there is no quick and easy fix to the re‐establishment of UK roast beef as a premier brand.

Private retail and brand-driven sustainable procurement standards are influencing global agri-food markets, shifting trade and export priorities and reshaping food supply chains. Using the case of Australian beef, the authors construct and evaluate three procurement activity “portfolios” and evaluate how these activity sets pull towards or against diverse organisational goals and/or science-based sustainability objectives.

A review of the academic and practitioner literature identified three key pillars for sustainable Australian beef procurement: animal welfare, environmental management and climate change (i.e. emissions). A subset of sustainable beef production activities (n = 100) was identified through this review plus semi-structured interviews with Australian beef retailers and industry bodies. This activity set was filtered (n = 40) and scored by a panel of science experts via a series of workshops and an additional survey. Using these data, the authors use a k-means cluster analysis (k = 3) to consider the strong or weak contributions of each activity portfolio towards typical sustainable beef goals.

A portfolio-based view of sustainable procurement puts the trade-offs between activities and the need for clear sustainability prioritisation into sharp focus. The authors find that individual strategies may be singularly more or less impactful, complex or popular, but when combined as a suite of activities enacted towards a particular goal or set of goals, essential for success. The authors find that obtaining balance across sustainable beef pillars versus within specific pillars can narrow the optimal set of activities that can succeed against multiple sustainability goals.

For procurement managers, the balance between clear focus and multidimensional progress is a difficult challenge. It requires the bold identification and articulation of an organisation’s interlocking corporate, industry or environmental objectives and flexibility on the strategies, tools and resources required. The authors posit that shifting away from a focus on rigid metrics may be useful in breaking the impasse on meaningful action.

Using a set of known activities and strategies that a procurement manager might draw from in operationalising sustainability goals, the authors cluster activities into three discrete activity portfolios. Each portfolio requires differing levels of effort, implementation complexity and potential for within-pillar and cross-pillar impact (i.e. co-benefits). Assessing the evidence and potential for cross-pillar impacts of individual strategies is a complex undertaking, indicative of the systems and tangled interactions that characterise sustainability science more broadly.

By assessing how the procurement function can be leveraged and operationalised towards sustainability goals through a lens of optimal portfolio management, the authors provide a way forward for the procurement managers working within large retailers and agri-food businesses to progress towards multiple sustainability pillars simultaneously.

In recent years, and especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the significant role of agriculture, specifically red meat, in household consumption has been increased. On the other hand, the lack of proper policymaking in the production and pricing of red meat and the lack of a comprehensive study on the beef supply chain has led to a reduction in the role of this protein product in the household food basket. Thus, in this research, comprehensive strategic planning considering the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been illustrated to overcome the aforementioned problems.

To study the intended objectives, first, using qualitative methods, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to the studied company's supply chain in Iran were identified and then using the SWOT-Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) technique, the surrounding strategies have been analysed.

The results indicate that the most important strength of the studied company is the “access to the red meat market of the retirement plan”; the most important weakness is the “lack of required and on-time funding, especially in the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic”; the highest-ranked opportunity is the “access to banking facilities” and the main threat to the company is the “COVID-19 pandemic limitations and health protocols”. In the same vein, by examining the attractiveness score of internal and external factors, it was observed that diversity and competitive strategies would have a higher priority. Finally, the QSPM illustrated that activating the full capacity of existing infrastructure has the highest priority.

According to the red meat supply chain and the link amongst different market levels, identifying, analysing and improving the beef supply chain is of particular importance. One of the threats facing the international community is the emergence of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires businesses to choose the right strategy to deal with the issue. Therefore, the main distinction of this study is to identify, analyse and improve the red meat supply chain of a real case due to the condition of the COVID-19 pandemic.

US Premium Beef Ltd is a cooperative partnership between all segments of the beef industry value chain, affording each segment an interest in the key stages of beef production and processing, as well as an equal share of the financial risks and rewards. This “value‐added” strategy is accomplished through vertical integration and adding a quality‐based pricing structure to more closely link beef producers and consumers. The case study is an example of supply chain management as a strategic response to a mature industry. It also exemplifies how ownership structure of the firm, particularly the emergence of new‐generation cooperatives, is employed as a strategic factor in developing a new competitive approach in an industry characterized by sales decline and aggressive competition from substitute products such as poultry and pork.

US Premium Beef Ltd is a cooperative partnership between all segments of the beef industry value chain, affording each segment an interest in the key stages of beef production and processing, as well as an equal share of the financial risks and rewards. This “value‐added” strategy is accomplished through vertical integration and adding a quality‐based pricing structure to more closely link beef producers and consumers. The case study is an example of supply chain management as a strategic response to a mature industry. It also exemplifies how ownership structure of the firm, particularly the emergence of new‐generation cooperatives, is employed as a strategic factor in developing a new competitive approach in an industry characterized by sales decline and aggressive competition from substitute products such as poultry and pork.

The purpose of this paper is to help readers understand the nature of the food supply chain and the way that environmental “costs” are accumulated along its length, with a view to developing more sustainable supply chains from political, social, economic technological and environmental perspectives.

In order to do this, the authors have examined elements of the supply chain starting off by looking at consumer expectations and moving on to the environmental impact of different food types, different production systems, food transport and food waste. A series of calculations looking at the costings for different types of meals, with different environmental credentials, that might be served at different events is included to put some of the more abstract ideas of and environmental cost/benefit into context.

Performing a thorough life cycle analysis of a meal is a very complex and far from certain procedure. It is essential for us to develop our techniques in order to make informed decisions, but in a commercial world probably the best approach is to adopt a broad set of criteria that are likely to give environmental benefits both to the business, the consumer and broader society. In some cases, this may be best achieved by adopting or developing some sort of accreditation scheme or brand.

This paper gives event managers and others involved in the food supply chain context within which to start thinking about more environmentally sound peculiar and of foodstuffs.

This paper represents a broad overview pulling together many sets of original findings from a very diverse interdisciplinary literature base.

Canada, together with other developed countries, faces an increasingly sophisticated consumer in an increasingly differentiated and competitive marketplace. Over the last two decades, the Canadian beef industry has suffered from a decline in per capita beef consumption. One of the contributing factors to this is inadequate coordination of the beef supply chain to meet consumers’ changing tastes and preferences. This study focuses on the perspective of cow‐calf producers on the need for greater coordination and their attitudes towards industry coordination. The study found this group of participants to be broadly aware of the need to develop both a more coordinated beef industry and mechanisms that encourage them to be more consumer‐responsive.