Wholesalers perspectives on mango supply chain efficiency in India

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors and most significant reasons leading to supply chain inefficiency with respect to high cost, high lead time and poor quality at wholesale stage of mango supply chain in India, and also to find out the measures which may be taken to improve supply chain efficiency. Design/methodology/approach The paper opted for an exploratory study using the quantitative and qualitative method of research. The study was conducted at Asia’s largest and world’s second largest fruits and vegetable wholesale market (Mandi) in Azadpur, Delhi. Factors have been identified using factor analysis and the measures to improve supply chain efficiency in fruits sector have been found out through semi-structured interviews with agri- and food-supply chain experts. Findings Based on the factor analysis, three factors were identified for high cost, namely, operational charges, labour and resources; four factors were identified for high lead time, namely, operational issues, labour, resources and infrastructure; and four factors were identified for poor quality, namely, operational issues, infrastructure, resources and poor ambience. It was also found that operational factor is the most significant factor leading to supply chain inefficiency. The study also highlighted the measures for improving supply chain efficiency based on the outcome of the interviews. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to the wholesale stage of fruit supply chain with the focus on Azadpur Mandi, Delhi, India, with specific reference to mango. Also, the measures have been identified for only the most significant reasons under each factor leading to supply chain inefficiency with respect to cost, time and quality. Originality/value There is a dearth of literature on improving the supply chain efficiency pertaining to the wholesale stage of fruits and vegetable sector in India. This paper tries to fulfil the gap and contributed to the literature on agriculture supply chain, which may be helpful for the researchers as well as the practitioners to improve food supply chain pertaining to developing countries.

Supply chain efficiency framework to improve business performance in a competitive era

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A Systematic Review of Sustainable Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chains

“…Based on the findings, it was concluded that the price of fresh and raw vegetables is determined in the wholesale market. Negi and Anand [48] examined the wholesale stage of a mango SC in India using factor analysis. Various factors affecting cost, lead time and quality and, therefore, causing inefficiency in the system, were eventually identified.…”

An empirical investigation and prioritization of barriers toward implementation of agile manufacturing in the manufacturing industry

“…The adequacy of the data for an exploratory factor analysis has been assessed through Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and the Bartlett's test of sphericity (Sharma and Gupta, 2015; Dhochak and Sharma, 2016; Singla et al , 2018). The KMO values which are higher than 0.6 are considered as satisfactory to carry out the factor analysis (Singh and Singh, 2018; Negi and Anand, 2019). Table 2 shows that the KMO value is 0.975, revealing that the data are fit for the factor analysis.…”