Sustainable logistics barriers of fruits and vegetables: An interpretive structural modeling approach
Abstract
Purpose
The reduction of food wastage at every stage of a fresh produce supply chain helps in achieving balance among all three dimensions (social, ecological and economic) of the sustainability and helps in stimulating the growth and development in the agricultural domain. The purpose of this paper is to address the causal factors of post-harvesting losses (PHLs) occurring in the transportation phase.
Design/methodology/approach
Through exhaustive literature survey and expert opinions, 12 crucial barriers to sustainable transportation of fruits and vegetables (F&V) are identified. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, is employed for developing a structural model of the identified barriers.
Findings
The results of the analysis highlighted that two factors, namely, the non-availability of refrigerated vehicles, and excessive loading on the vehicles, are the most significant barriers to sustainable transportation which are found to have the highest driving power.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the present research are applicable to the F&V supply chains only. The established interrelation among the identified factors depends on the judgments given by the experts which could be biased. The developed ISM model is intended to guide the policy and decision makers for formulating the policies for the performance improvement of the fresh produce value chain.
Originality/value
It is the first research of its kind focusing on the model development of critical factors causing PHLs in the transportation phase of the agricultural fresh produce supply chain using MCDM process.
Keywords
Citation
Raut, R. and Gardas, B.B. (2018), "Sustainable logistics barriers of fruits and vegetables: An interpretive structural modeling approach", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 25 No. 8, pp. 2589-2610. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-07-2017-0166
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited