From COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine: evidence of a Schumpeterian transformation of food logistics

Abstract This study analyzes the changes that have occurred in food logistics in the three years since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the one year since the war in Ukraine commenced. Food logistics companies are highly sensitive to demand shocks, energy prices, and staff availability. In this study, “first-hand” information was collected in the Iberian Peninsula, and it showed a process of Schumpeterian transformation. This crisis environment in which food logistics companies have been operating has opened a unique opportunity to renew operating procedures and seek new solutions, products, and markets. Therefore, food logistics companies have developed more effective communication strategies and innovative, profitable, and forward-looking commercial strategies to adapt to the new needs of their clients, applied more efficient transport planning and management methods, implemented new technologies to increase automation and digitization in warehouses, transport platforms, and trucks, and boosted market concentration and investment in infrastructure. Therefore, public authorities and top executives must focus on promoting and facilitating these improvements.