Factors Influencing Indian Supply Chains

Factors Influencing Indian Supply Chains of Fruits and Vegetables: A Literature Review

Sunil Bhardwaj* and Indrani Palaparthy**

As the Indian population is increasing, the demand for fresh fruits and vegetables is also increasing. Owing to the perishable nature and very short shelf life, these items require proper storage and transportation facilities in order to reach to the customer in fresh state. This requires a considerable amount of effort from the involved parties. The entire chain is fraught with issues like lack of transparency in pricing (at the farmers’ end), dominance of traders, weak links in supply chain, etc. This leads to loss of revenue to the farmer and increased additional costs to the other supply chain partners, which ultimately enforces the final consumer to bear extra burden on his pocket. Since organized retail has started showing interest in fresh fruit and vegetable markets and has already entered into the market with huge investments, the issues involved in this supply chain have changed dramatically and are influencing not only the supply chain partners but also the whole agriculture sector in India. The present study undertakes a thorough review of basic and contemporary literature and tries to explain the factors influencing Indian fruit and vegetable markets and their effects on the supply chain partners. It also brings out relevant research gaps and overlooked problems in the supply chain.

Introduction

The manual, Improving Your Supply Chain (Solomon, 1998, p. 3) published by Federal Government’s Industry, Science and Technology Department, defines a supply chain as “an organization that covers the full range of activities from the earliest level of input through the internal processes in the host organization and on to the output distribution system. The input elements cover the supply of raw materials, components, assemblies and packaging. The internal elements cover goods inwards receipt, warehousing, movement to line...