Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kleineidam, Julia Maren

Titel

Logistic Management Model for Food Loss Reduction in East African Food Value Networks

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Providing people with food is a major challenge in many ways. The challenges associated with it will become even more important in the future considering the continuously growing world population. While resources for food production are limited, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) estimates that approximately one third of the produced food does not reach the consumer (Gustavsson et al. 2011). Lost food is not only a problem because it cannot be used to feed people who need it, but because it also involves a considerable waste of resources (FAO 2017a). The current amount of food waste would meet the calorie requirements of 1.9 billion people. In addition, according to UN statistics around 815 million people worldwide are currently suffering from hunger (UNITED NATIONS 2015b). Hence it is generally concluded that the food supply worldwide does not have a production problem, but a distribution problem. This is one of the core functions of logistics and should therefore be addressed by this discipline (Hiç et al. 2016; Pfohl and Feldkamp 2001).The food industry, for example in Europe, with approximately 4.2 million jobs and a turnover of around € 1,048 billion (in Germany approximately € 175.2 billion), is one of the largest economic sectors (Bücking and Hengse 2018). In many developing countries, the food industry occupies an even more important position. In African countries, an average of two-thirds of the population is employed in this sector. Approximately 23 percent of the continent's gross domestic product is generated by agricultural products. This sector is thus by far the most important economic sector in Africa. Considering the background of hunger and malnutrition on the continent, this factor is further underlined (BMEL 2020). Accordingly, it is of particular relevance for industry, consumers, experts, and research institutions to handle food losses. Logistics concepts such as innovative technologies and process optimization along the food value networks should help to reduce food losses.The problem of food losses is not a new phenomenon. However, it has not been in the public spotlight for a long time. This has changed through various initiatives in recent years. As a result, the issue has also found its way into the UN's 17 global sustainable development goals. The 12th objective "responsible consumption" includes the following sub-objective 12.3:"By 2030, halving per capita global food waste at retail and consumer level and reduce food losses along the production and supply chain, including post- harvest losses." (UNITED NATIONS 2015a) The objective directly addresses the core functions of logistics and thus represents an immanent task for logistics industry and science.Logistics can make a significant contribution to reducing the losses of produced food through appropriate logistical measures. Thus, specific concepts are developed for individual parts of food value networks or for certain types of food, which contribute to the reduction of losses in the context of logistics.However, current research concepts on food losses prevention in the context of logistics mainly focus on the downstream stages of food value networks. Hardly any methods are discussed that allow a holistic view from the beginning of food production to the end customer. Current research driven by industrialized countries is predominantly concerned with high-tech approaches, such as RFID sensors, smart containers or decision support systems (Borit and Santos 2015: Chuang et al. 2017; Pimor et al. 2015).