AGRIFOOD SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABILITY FOR PERISHABLE GOODS SHIPMENT

The management of transportation, warehousing, and distribution of perishable goods from the farm to consumers zone has been major concern in the agri-food industry, considering decay of products and effect of methane gas to the environment from this decayed product. A multi-period, strategic and tactical planning model was developed to take care of shipment route for these perishable goods from the farm gate to the consumer’s zone with different cold-hubs via different routes options. The S-T model addressed sensitivity and ambiguity associated with seasonal demand and product loss due to delay in shipment, to ensure timely and efficient delivery of products. Five contradicting objectives (Profit, Power Rating, Credit Performance, Response time and Distributors Reputation) were optimized, initially a single objective optimization was employed to attain a single best solution and then a multi-objective optimization to achieve a compromise solution using Chebyshev goal programming. The model bases its analysis on five objective factors: customer response time, power rating, credit performance, distributor reputation, and profit. Following the tactical and strategic requirements in the aforementioned S-T framework, only three distribution centers of mixed capacity were established for a mid-term planning. In addition to determining the location and capacity of each cold hub, the research model was also able to determine which customers, if any, should be moved to independent distributors.