Left Out in the Cold: The Case of Potato Cold Stores in West Bengal

--Anita Kumar

The need to make food production, distribution and consumption sustainable is a critical concern worldwide. Even though India contributes significantly to the world’s fruit and vegetable production, per capita domestic availability and export of fruits and vegetables in this country is low because of the enormous post-harvest losses. Primitive and inadequate cold chain infrastructure has been perceived to be the weakest link in the Indian food supply chain, as this directly affects the quality, safety and shelf life of perishable products. The paper empirically investigates the current state of cold storage facilities in West Bengal, the second highest potato producing state in India. It highlights specific cold chain wastes and elimination opportunities at strategic and operational levels. The study also identifies a need to establish and implement performance evaluation measures for monitoring the integrity of the cold chain. The study represents one of the first and objective studies of its type within the Indian agri-food supply chain and adds to the limited body of knowledge on this sector. At process level, this study provides recommendations for observance of proper conditions in the cold stores. It also provides viable and achievable initiatives to encourage private entrepreneurship and investment and to improve growth and profitability in this sector. This study is also timely and relevant as parallel development of cold chain infrastructure is essential to coincide with the emergence of organized retail in India.

© 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Supply Chain Model for Strawberry in Uttarakhand: Prospects and Suggestions

--Singh Saurabh

Till the late 90s, the acreage under strawberry cultivation in Uttarakhand was 30-40 acres and Jyolikot area in Nainital district was known as the “Strawberry Bowl of India”. But after 1998, the cultivation of strawberry started in plains of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi (NCR) too. This increased the competition for strawberry growers of Nainital districts, Uttarakhand due to lower cost of cultivation and distribution at places mentioned above. Presently, the acreage under strawberry is just around 11-12 acres in Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun districts of Uttarakhand with around 10 acres in Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar. The National Horticulture Board also does not have any scheme for strawberry growers of the state. The study found a need for a sustainable supply chain model to promote distribution of locally grown strawberry in nearby markets. Once the market is developed, the acreage under strawberry can be increased considerably, which is a good alternative source of income, providing net income of about 70,000- 80,000/acre/season to the growers. Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Haldwani could be the potential markets to be tapped initially as they have a large number of hotels and restaurants, and are frequented by tourists and business executives throughout the year. Due to its being in the vicinity and connected by good road network, supply from farmers to the consumers could be done within 3-4 hours. The packed boxes of strawberry could be picked up early in the morning from farm gate by a vehicle and distributed to hotels and restaurants as per their demand in the nearby markets.

© 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Reverse Logistics: A Comparative Study of LPG Agencies in Urban and Rural Areas

--Kottala Sriyogi

The paper presents a comparative study of a typical reverse logistics problem, i.e., refilling of LPG cylinders in urban and rural areas. Due to the large consumption of LPG cylinders for domestic purpose and market price fluctuations of the gas reserves that are present in India and that are being imported which has a lot of uncertainty, there is a need to optimize the transportation costs, considering environmental concern, consumer satisfaction and lead time. This paper has made an attempt to identify the problems and challenges experienced by LPG agencies in urban and rural areas, and also offered a few managerial recommendations. Managing the reverse logistics network is critically discussed with reference to both rural and urban agencies, considering SCM drivers. The paper has also proposed an EDI implementation strategy.

© 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Study of Apparel Supply Chain Risks

--Srikanta Routroy and Arjun Shankar

Today, apparel supply chains are becoming more prone to both controllable and uncontrollable risks. This phenomenon may be attributed to many causes but not limited to less vertical integration, fragmentation of supply chain ownership, short product life cycle, ever-changing customer expectations, increasing level of competition, environmental regulations, rapid technology obsolescence, etc. These risks deteriorate directly the apparel supply chain performance in terms of both efficiency and responsiveness. Therefore, the Apparel Supply Chain (ASC) managers should identify and analyze the risks related to their supply chains so that appropriate mitigation strategies can be developed to enhance the supply chain performance. An attempt is made to study the ASC and identify the related risks in general. This will provide a platform to identify the risks for an apparel supply chain in particular.

© 2014 IUP. All Rights Reserved.