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The purpose of this paper is to review the agriculture supply chain (ASC) literature along many dimensions which include but are not restricted to scope, objective, wastages, driver, obstacle, outcome, etc.

In total, 203 relevant and scholarly articles of various researchers and practitioners during 2000-2016 were reviewed. The information related to definition, research methodology, global research spread, supply chain strategy, various types of produce, author profile and year of publication of ASC were collected and analysed.

The information related to empirical research and viewpoint of various ASC drivers were captured, studied and analysed in detail. Although inventory policy, demand forecasting and ASC integration were found to be important areas of ASC, they were less focused, studied and researched.

Mainly post-harvest ASC of different agricultural produces were considered whereas products such as dairy, fishery and meat supply chains were not included in the study.

The paper provides an insight into various aspects of ASC in general and one can get a deeper and richer knowledge on it which will help in formulating effective strategies to design of an effective and efficient ASC. It uncovers the research gaps for the new future research paths. This systemic review is strongly felt to fill the gap in the ASC literature.

This study deals with attenuating the risk of relying on a single export market, which was heightened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on Taiwanese atemoya (a fruit with short storage life) and the adoption of active controlled atmosphere (CA) containers, a new technology which lengthens storage time for other export markets. This study looks at the financial feasibility of the technology's first ever use in atemoya exports.

Apart from the standard financial assessment tools—like net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), benefit-cost ratio (BCR) and payback period (PBP)—this study calibrated five different scenarios based on data gathered from relevant market agents including suppliers, exporters, customs brokers and technology developer.

Due to the high profit margin and low investment cost, the use of active CA containers for long-haul exports of this highly perishable fruit is found both technically and financially feasible, despite the generally higher operational cost during the pandemic.

This study looked at three specific export markets: Malaysia, Dubai and Canada. Results here may lack generalizability in other markets, although it is believed that slight deviations would not invalidate the conclusions of this research because short, medium and long distances were all covered therein.

This paper studies the first time that active CA is used for export of atemoyas to expand existing markets.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review of the perishable food supply chain quality (PFSCQ). It includes all the products/process from the farm to folk of perishable food (milk, meat, vegetable, grains and butter).

The methodology of a structured literature review involves selection of a representative sample of articles followed by classification of articles on the basis of research methodology and content of PFSCQ in the paper.

Research toward PFSCQ has risen in last five years. Fewer articles are addressing issues of developing countries then developed countries. Majority of the articles involved multiple as entity of analysis (combination of supplier, distributor, manufacturer, retailer and consumer), information as element of exchange and chain as the level of analysis. A large number of articles involved “agri-food,” “dairy” and “pork” as perishable products. Majority of articles used “case study” methodology. Statistical analysis as a tool for problem solving was used in majority of articles. Performance measurement aspect is also on growth in PFSCQ literature. Information sharing, logistic management, strategic management, demand forecasting and integration among the various stakeholders of PFSCQ are some of the critical issues.

Many literature reviews that aim at critical examination of supply chain literature are reported but none of them focussed exclusively on content of PFSCQ. Another unique feature of this paper is that the sample size of articles with respect to number of papers (481 papers) as well as number of journals (141 journals) is quite large. The paper spans a longer time span of 20 years (1994-2013) as well.

The huge demand for fresh goods has stimulated lots of research on the perishable food supply chain. The characteristics of perishable food and the cross-regional transportation have brought many challenges to the operation models of perishable food supply chain. The purpose of this paper is to address these challenges based on the real-time data acquired by the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

IoT and the modeling of the Supply Hub in Industrial Parks were adopted in the perishable food supply chain.

A conceptual model was established for the IoT-enabled perishable food supply chain with two-echelon supply hubs. The performance of supply chain has improved when implementing the proposed model, as is demonstrated by a case study.

By our model, the supply hubs which act as the dominators of the supply chain can respond to the real-time information captured from the operation processes of an IoT-enabled supply chain, thus to provide public warehousing and logistic services.

The objective of this paper is to contribute to Australian berry supply chains with a relevant identification regarding the possible data driven interventions that stakeholders can take while the berries are in transit.

An exploratory series of semi-structured interviews was conducted through six Australian experts in the industry with more than 20 years of experience in Australian berry supply chains and the Australian perishable food industry, to identify key possible in-transit interventions that could be implemented in the Australian berry industry.

The analysis of the interviews revealed a total of 18 possible in-transit interventions. An important finding is that in-transit interventions are made possible by the use of real-time data gathered through IoT devices such as Active Radio Frequency Identification, Time and Temperature Indicators interacting with Wireless Sensor Networks. Another key finding is that Australian berry growers and retailers do possess the technologies and the resources necessary to make in-transit interventions possible, however they have yet applied these technologies to operational decision-making and interventions based on the product, rather focussing on supply chain transactions and events.

Since the research focusses on an Australian context, its findings may or may not be applicable to other countries. The research is exploratory in nature, and its findings should be verified by future research, in particular to test whether the in-transit interventions proposed here can be implemented in a cost-efficient way.

To the authors' knowledge, this publication is the first known academic article to provide a clear understanding of the Australian berry industry from a supply chain and logistics perspective, and the first to explore possible data driven in-transit interventions in perishable food supply chains.

This study explores the factors that impact the quality of fresh produce in the transportation phase of the supply chain and the mitigation framework for improving the quality to curb the losses.

This study aimed for an exploratory analysis using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Using a questionnaire with responses from 172 transporters from the Uttar Pradesh region, India, primary data were gathered through a survey. Factors were identified using factor analysis and mitigation strategies were suggested for the factors through semi-structured interviews with six experts in transportation, agribusiness and food supply chain.

Four factors that impact the quality were identified based on the factor analysis, namely operational issues, poor preservation, lack of ease of in-transit and poor infrastructure. The operational issue was found to be the main factor influencing the quality of fresh produce. The study also proposed the mitigation framework for the factors based on the interview results.

The present study is confined to the fresh produce supply chain transportation process, particularly fruits with an emphasis on the Uttar Pradesh region, India.

There is a lack of literature on implying mitigation strategies for factors affecting fresh produce quality in the transport process in India. Thus, this study attempts to fulfill this gap and has added to the food supply chain literature that could help scholars and practitioners in improving the food supply chain in developing economies.

This purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence of how cooperation is related to suppliers’ performance, a relationship that is thought to be affected by the type of customer and the extent to which the market is diversified. It analyzes horticultural exporting firms in southeastern Spain, which are the main suppliers of European markets. Together with their primary customers (large-scale retail companies such as Carrefour, Tesco and Aldi), these firms constitute a complex supply network composed of a variety of agents and sales channels. This network will be studied from the perspective of the supplier–supplier relationship that is critical to their survival.

Starting with a detailed description of Europe’s vegetable supply chain, a hierarchical regression is used with an index of cooperation intensity, moderated by retail sales and market concentration. The authors test the hypotheses using panel data on a set of 118 horticultural marketing firms in southeast Spain for the period 2009-2011.

Cooperation strategies are shown to have positive effects on performance (market creation, promotion, quality, training, joint supply purchases and research ventures). Moreover, the retail channel and market diversification are observed to have a positive effect on the relationship between cooperation and the supplier’s performance. They demonstrate that active cooperation strategies have a greater bearing on performance in those firms whose primary customers are retailers. This circumstance provides evidence of the synergies and benefits that may arise when the supplier integrates the retailer in the supply chain, but which do not arise with other types of customers.

Although this study refers to a specific sector (fruits and vegetables) and the statistical results are limited, they provide insights that may assist in understanding how other perishable produce-related industries work: such industries share many common features.

A more stable relationship between suppliers and retailers in the perishable produce market will render the supply firm more cooperative, competitive and profitable. Increased performance does not arise from the better conditions and improved sales power offered by the customer but instead from the adaptability of the supplier. Likewise, market diversification drives the supply firm toward a cooperative strategy, making it more profitable and competitive. As a practical norm, market diversification alone will not have positive results on performance unless the firm proves capable of enhancing its capacity for cooperation.

Proper management of the agricultural produce supply chain has repercussions on all of the members of that chain, although special emphasis should be placed on producers and consumers. The availability of food, its quality and its safety depend on management during the production phase. Along these lines, and more specifically for the consumer, this work is relevant because the sector analyzed accounts for 40 per cent of the vegetables consumed in Europe.

This article defends the supplier–supplier relationship as the starting point for the analysis of a supply network. In certain sectors, the suppliers’ ability both to solve their clients’ problems and to be profitable is conditioned on maintaining the network and, therefore, the basic focus must center on analyzing their relationships, always including the customer, who has a direct or indirect influence on those relationships. Previous research has not comprehensively addressed this issue, let alone that of a sector with agile and perishable products in which, due to its nature, decision-making about market destinations and sales channels is the order of the day.

Due to the importance of quality to customers, this study considers criteria of quality and profit and optimizes both in a multi-echelon cold chain of perishable agricultural products whose quality immediately begins to deteriorate after harvest. The two objectives of the proposed cold chain are to maximize profit and quality. Since postharvest quality loss in the supply chain depends on various decisions and factors, in addition to strategic decisions, the authors consider the temperature setting in refrigerated facilities and transportation vehicles due to the unfixed shelf life of the products which is related to the temperature found by Arrhenius formula.

The authors use bi-objective mixed-integer nonlinear programming to design a four-echelon supply chain. The authors integrate the supply chain echelons to detect the sources and factors of quality loss. The four echelons include supply, processing, storage and customer. The decisions, including facility location, assigning nodes of each echelon to corresponding nodes from the adjacent echelon, allocation of vehicles to transport the products from farms to wholesalers, processing selection, and temperature setting in refrigerated facilities, are made in an integrated way. Model verification and validation in the case study are done based on three perishable herbal plants.

The model obtains a 29% profit against a total cost of 71 and 93% of original quality of the crops is maintained, indicating a 7% quality loss. The final quality of 93% is the result of making a US$6m investment in the supply chain, including the procurement of high-quality raw materials; facility establishment; high-speed, high-capacity vehicles; location assignment; processing selection and refrigeration equipment in the storage and transportation systems, helping to maximize both the final quality of the products and the total profit.

The proposed supply chain model should help managers with modeling decisions, especially when it comes to cold chains for agricultural products. The model yields these results – optimal location-allocation decisions for the facilities to minimize distances between the network nodes, which save time and maintain the majority of the products’ original quality; choosing the most appropriate processing method, which reduces the perishability rate; providing high-capacity, high-speed vehicles in the logistics system, which minimizes transportation costs and maximizes the quality; and setting the right temperature in the refrigerated facilities, which mitigates the postharvest decay reaction rate of the products.

Comparison of the results of the present research with those of the traditional chain (obtained through experts) shows that since the designed chain increases the profit as well as the final quality, it has benefits for the main chain stakeholders, which are customers of agricultural products. This study model is expected to have a positive impact on the environment by placing strong emphasis on quality and preventing excessive waste generation and air pollution by imposing a financial penalty on extra demand production.

Since profit and quality of the final product are two important factors in all cultures and communities, the proposed supply chain model can be used in any food industry around the world. Applying the proposed model induces growth in local industries and promotes the culture of prioritizing quality in societies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research on a bi-objective four-echelon (supply, processing, storage and customer) postharvest supply chain for agricultural products including that integrates transportation logistics and considers the deterioration rate of products as a time-dependent variable at different levels of decision-making.

Managing perishable inventories is a trade‐off of shortages and lost sales against wastage. This paper aims to identify what drives good management of perishables within the supply chain using the example of blood inventory management in hospitals.

Seven case studies with hospital transfusion laboratories in the UK blood supply chain were carried out in order to explore how perishable inventories are managed. The case studies identify drivers for good performance in perishable inventories.

Six recommendations are developed for how managers can improve perishable inventory performance. These are based around simple management procedures implemented by experienced staff. The case studies develop three propositions that recommend how inventory theory should be embedded in practice.

This research demonstrates that managerial changes and training issues have a significant impact on waste reduction and inventory management performance in perishable supply chains. However, as the case studies focus on the blood supply chain, some caution needs to be applied in generalising these findings beyond the specific context studied.

A multi‐disciplinary approach, combining awareness of the importance of the dynamics of the whole supply chain with good skill and experience, leads to new thinking, which enables staff to make better inventory decisions resulting in better performance and reduced wastage. Managerial changes and training are critical for good inventory performance.

Literature suggests that sophisticated and complex inventory models will drive performance; however, in practice a combination of basic well‐grounded inventory theory with simple management procedures carried out by experienced staff leads to better performance.

The purpose of this paper is to optimize a two-level perishable product supply chain by increasing its revenue with the Internet of Things (IoT). It particularly investigates how radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology impacts the revenue of the supply chain.

In this paper, two revenue models were built to calculate the revenue of perishable product supply chain before and after the application of IoT to analyze the influences of IoT on perishable product supply chain. In the case study, particular data of an aquatic product supply chain were analyzed through these models which were later solved by a computer simulation method based on Colonial Competitive Algorithm, a new heuristic algorithm inspired by imperialistic competition in human society.

Using these revenue models to compare the revenues of supply chain before and after the application of IoT, this paper concludes that the application of IoT can efficiently optimize a perishable product supply chain by balancing its wholesale profits and its total costs including logistics costs, therefore, increasing its overall revenue. However, this conclusion is only applicable for large enterprises, while small enterprises are not supposed to introduce IoT due to its high cost.

The revenue models built in this paper can be used to evaluate the profits of supply chain and help enterprises determine how to maximize their profits and whether they should introduce IoT in a perishable product supply chain. In addition, through the analysis of case study, this paper gives several valuable suggestions to help enterprises reduce their logistics costs and increase their overall revenue.