Sustainability implementation challenges in food supply chains: A case of UK artisan cheese producers

Abhijeet Ghadge, Öğr Merve Er Kara, Dnyaneshwar G. Mogale, Sonal Choudhary, Samir Dani

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Food supply chains are receiving increased attention due to rapid depletion of natural resources, increasing quality standards and rising food safety and security concerns. Implementing sustainability practices in food supply chains is believed to overcome such emerging challenges. However, limited studies address sustainability implementation concerns, particularly in cold food supply chains. Thus, this study attempts to identify factors hindering sustainability implementation in cold food chain networks by considering a case of UK artisan cheese producers. Survey data is utilised to identify and prioritise barriers for implementing sustainability following fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. The analysis identified several key barriers, including initial investment cost, firm size and unawareness of government regulations. The internal barriers significantly dominate the implementation of sustainability practices in comparison to external barriers. Lack of consensus regarding the concept of sustainability by different stakeholders is observed to be an issue negatively affecting the level of integration in SMEs. Findings will help food and dairy SME's in gaining competitive advantage through the successful implementation of sustainability practices.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1191-1206
Number of pages16
JournalProduction Planning and Control
Volume32
Issue number14
Early online date28 Jul 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Sustainability implementation challenges in food supply chains: A case of UK artisan cheese producers'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this