CADEIAS CURTAS DE ABASTECIMENTO DE ALIMENTOS: UMA CARACTERIZAÇÃO NOS MERCADOS LOCAIS POR MEIO DOS ESTUDOS EMPÍRICOS

Este estudo objetiva analisar o enraizamento que os produtores e consumidores apresentam em sua interação nos mercados locais por meio dos estudos empíricos nas cadeias curtas de abastecimento de alimentos. Para tanto, utilizou-se a metodologia de revisão sistemática para analisar as publicações sobre as cadeias curtas de abastecimento de alimentos, disponibilizadas nas bases Web of Science, SCOPUS e material complementar. Para isso, utilizou-se como apoio o software Ucinet®. Os resultados encontrados apontaram que, dos 26 trabalhos pesquisados, publicados de 2014 até 2019, 21 possuem aplicabilidade empírica. É possível vislumbrar, nesses estudos, que o aspecto social é o que possui o maior destaque, porque são capazes até de servir de ponte entre diferentes mundos sociais, tanto em seus componentes de necessidades quanto nos de seu potencial. Já o aspecto econômico aparece às vezes de forma neutra ou tendo a principal motivação na redução de custos de transporte e eliminação dos agentes intermediários que representavam gastos pesados. Algumas questões, como os cuidados ambientais de pequena escala em pequenas propriedades, por exemplo, mostram-se como lacunas do estudo, o que suscita a questão: as SFSCs (Short food supply chains) serão capazes de limitar os danos ambientais gerados e se conseguirão, além disso, promover externalidades positivas produzidas por alguns modelos de agricultura, em termos de aprimoramento da paisagem ou de proteção da agrobiodiversidade? O papel da confiança na relação produtor/consumidor mereceu destaque. Os demais estudos são pesquisas referentes ao perfil de consumidores ou de agricultores, pesquisas de comportamento e sociodemográficas.

Is the quest to eat healthy a route to enhancing consumer’s food security?

Background On an individual level, food security has multiple dimensions and consumers exhibit heterogeneity in the extent to which different attributes matter in their quest for enhanced food security. The aim of this paper is to explain how the quest for individual food security arises and its dynamic nature and its implications for how food security-enhancing attributes are defined and how they are signaled, and for the role of regulators and food supply chains in establishing credible signals. Results The paper finds that the quest for enhanced individual food security is a dynamic process that responds to the disequilibrium that change brings. The changing role of standards and grades as signals in food markets is discussed as a precursor to considering the implications for both market and non-market (regulatory) failure in determining the appropriate role for the public sector in regulating food safety and quality standards and labeling. The rise of private standards is examined, along with a consideration of how these standards differ in terms of scope and objective and their implications for international trade in increasingly globalized food supply chains. Conclusions Despite the growth of private standards, a clear role remains for mandatory public standards, yet challenges arise when these standards differ across countries.

LEAN MANUFACTURING vs COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies coped and still must deal with uncertainty greater than ever. Due to the unpredictability of consumer demand, the incredible growth in demand for certain products, dramatic fluctuations in supply chains, and general economic instability, the future still looks uncertain. It is up to the manufacturers to determine how things will be sorted out in the new normality, i.e., which changes will be long-lasting or even permanent. Lean production has emerged in recent decades as an excellent solution to increase the economy and quality of production and meet customer needs. In the market conditions affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, producers work in a significantly changed environment, and many wonder whether lean production remains as relevant and valuable as in the past. The paper discusses lean production from different aspects as the essence of the principles of the lean concept, events during the pandemic, and expectations in the post-Covid period. We used some examples to support the analysis of factors that negatively affect the course of lean production as well as some bright examples of companies that took advantage of lean production in the new conditions. The conclusions consider answer whether lean production will survive the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Market power and food loss at the producer-retailer interface of fruit and vegetable supply chains in Germany

Food loss and waste are associated with an unnecessary consumption of natural resources and avoidable greenhouse gas emissions. The United Nations have thus set the reduction of food loss and waste on the political agenda by means of the Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3. The German Federal Government committed itself to this goal by implementing the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction in 2019. However, this policy approach relies heavily on voluntary action by involved actors and neglects the possible role of power imbalances along the food supply chain. While current research on food loss and waste in industrialised countries predominantly focuses on the consumer level, this study puts emphasis on the under-researched early stages of the food supply chain from the field to retailers’ warehouses. Based on 22 expert interviews with producers, producer organisations and retailers, this article identifies major inter-stage drivers of food loss in the supply chains for fresh fruit and vegetables in Germany. Its main novelty is to demonstrate how market power imbalances and risk shifting between powerful and subordinate actors can reinforce the tendency of food loss on the part of producers further up the supply chain. Results indicate that prevalent institutional settings, such as contractual terms and conditions, trading practices, ordering processes, product specifications, and communication privilege retailers and encourage food loss. The mechanisms in which these imbalances manifest, go beyond the European Commission’s current legislation on Unfair Trading Practices. This study suggests a research agenda that might help to formulate adjusted policy instruments for re-structuring the German fruit and vegetable markets so that less food is wasted.