Food loss in perishable food supply chains : The case of Colombia

Abstract: Background: Challenges with food loss in perishable food supply chains (PFSCs) indeveloping countries, such as Colombia, is an increasing problem. The PFSCs in developingcountries are characterized by high uncertainty and a dynamic environment. Furthermore, thehighest amount of food loss in these countries occurs in the early stages of the supply chainsuch as post-harvest and transport stages. Moreover, food loss in PFSCs in developingcountries has not been given sufficient amount of attention previously and needs to be givenattention in research, for these countries to be able to mitigate the problem with food loss. Research problem: To mitigate food loss in developing countries, knowledge is required ofwhy this occurs and how to solve it. This is why this research will focus on finding out themain different factors that lead to food loss in Colombian PFSCs and what solutions there areto mitigate food loss. Research purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyze PFSCs and the factors leading tofood loss, specifically the management of vital stages of PFSCs to target inefficiencies andreduce food loss in the context of Colombia. Research questions: RQ1: What factors can impact food loss in perishable food supply chains? RQ2: What factors in the vital stages of the perishable food supply chains in the Colombianmarket can help mitigate food loss? Conclusion: Our findings show different factors that were found to be contributing to foodloss in the PFSCs in Colombia. These were the lack of resources such as monetary,technology and knowledge, logistics factors such as cold storage, handling, infrastructure andtransportation and lastly, poor collaboration and communication. Furthermore, solutions tomitigate food loss were also found, these were technology (forecasting, cold chaintechnology), governmental policies and support, education, sufficient selling price, andfinally improved collaboration and communication. This shows that the factors leading tofood loss were many times the factors that would be solutions to food loss if improved. Ourmain conclusion was that food loss can be mitigated by collaboration and communicationwhich can be facilitated by technology.