A simulation model to investigate impacts of facilitating quality data within organic fresh food supply chains

Abstract

Abstract Demand for and production of organic fresh food play an increasing role worldwide. As a result, a growing amount of fresh fruits and vegetables has to be transported from predominantly rural production regions to customers mostly located in urban ones. Specific handling and storage conditions need to be respected along the entire supply chain to maintain high quality and product value. To support organic food logistics operations, this work investigates benefits of facilitating real-time product data along delivery and storage processes. By the development of a simulation-based decision support system, sustainable deliveries of organic food from farms to retail stores are investigated. Generic keeping quality models are integrated to observe impacts of varying storage temperatures on food quality and losses over time. Computational experiments study a regional supply chain of organic strawberries in Lower Austria and Vienna. Results indicate that the consideration of shelf life data in supply chain decisions allow one to reduce food losses and further enables shifting surplus inventory to alternative distribution channels.