The Food IndustryEssay Preview: The Food IndustryReport this essayThe unique feature of the food industry is that is should be built considering the seasonal constraints, which assumes the well thought planning and infrastructure design to be able to meet certain quality and price criteria and satisfy customers/consumers. Taking the abovementioned into considerations some companies specialised in food industry has established group under name of Cool Cargo, with great expertise in the transportation, storage and handling of short life and “temperature sensitive” food products by application of specially designed thermal protection (Cool Cargo web page).
The design adopted by Cool Cargo group has provided ability for controlling the movement of perishable food products at each stage of shipment starting at “pack house, inbound transportation, ground handling facilities, ramp, air transportation monitoring and end clearing agents” (Cool Cargo web page).
The supply visibility gained by the group has been achieved through the well established and controlled logistics and supply chain infrastructure.Supply Chain and Logistics infrastructure in cold chainRobinson (2009, p.10) indicates that “supply adjustments” are required for perishable food products to move them closer to the final process of consumption. The thought highlights the need for perishable food products to be treated in a special manner, keeping extra care on the freshness of products, as well as being able to deliver it straight to customers/consumer within limited time frame. For sure, it raises certain concerns in supply chain as costs versus responsiveness. This factor has been recognized in the work by Kozenski & Behn (2008, p.20) as companies involved in the food industry should deliberately control and manage all the incurred costs at all the stages “from the warehouse to freight and transportation”. Any uncontrolled actions or error in the process will result in the extra costs that company will have to consume affecting its overall profits.
The abovementioned idea has been captured by Cool Cargo as well. The company has established well integrated logistics infrastructure, together with well developed relationships with Thai suppliers of the product, helping to get goods processed and packed in time for further refrigeration and shipment (Case study material). The firm strategy of delivering high quality products to consumers at shortest possible lead time and reduced costs has driven Cool Cargo to evaluate the logistics network and identify the gaps. The process has been carried out to take non value adding activities out of the network, thus reducing the costs of process, and adding value into the chain and for sure serving to the interests of consumers providing them with higher service (Christopher, 2005, p.13). This has resulted with introduction of correct handling practices, “temperature monitoring,
(Gruppe, 2011), with a focus on fast, timely and quality high quality containers. Cool Cargo operates in China with a focus on developing, testing and promoting fast and clean container processes, “(2016, page 18) and working at the highest level, and providing reliable access to relevant data. Our technology-agnostic, low-cost and high quality container management systems are able to efficiently reduce energy consumption, and our products can be shipped even when the environment can no longer be optimized (Vander, 2010). It has provided a platform for consumers to monitor, analyze, understand and optimize their own experience, and it has enabled consumers to make informed choices in choosing their preferred storage space. Our goal is to enhance access of small, low to high efficiency, low power consumption, ‒/&22/ ₀. It is our goal to integrate our system with retail and international retailers.
1.8.4 Global Containering Initiative
We are the Global Container-Assisted International Network (GCSI) of the European Container Organization (ECO). From 2000-2013, our global goal from 2002-2008 was to: improve global food quality, to reduce food waste and contribute to increased food security, and thereby contribute to an adequate food production capacity. Our main objective by our initiative is to meet the needs of small farmers, the environment and low-to-moderate cost producers, and to provide more efficient, sustainable container management. We aspire to solve the world’s greatest problems: food security and hunger. Over the last 5 years, we are focusing on: improving our knowledge of food and the environment, building up our expertise in global agriculture and global food security, providing support for new infrastructure solutions and providing the necessary infrastructure to create the solutions for our projects: the Green and Sustainable Food Initiative, to develop sustainable urban infrastructure solutions and to increase food security at all levels. We aim to lead a new way forward with more global solutions in the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
1.8.5 Global Supply Management Initiative
Our global supply management system aims to provide sustainable food supply management for farmers worldwide. We have recently provided development assistance to about 5,000 farmers on a three-stage process of making sustainable food, building on its previous work and supporting the success of our current projects (Fisherman of the Year, Green Sustainable Food Challenge – Green Sustainable Food Project, 2007). The program was originally based in 2001 (see ‘Coffee & Soda: A Sustainable Business Development Solution’ (Coffee & Soda, 2002), and also was implemented in 2008 by a number of different organisations, notably the World Development Bank (World Development Bank, 2009). Together with our international supply management system, our program provides sustainable business development services worldwide.
With our distribution in Asia and Europe (especially from Europe in the form of free seeds and our specialised delivery centre), we aim to reach our target audience of low-scale producers, small manufacturers and large producer markets. In the process of our distribution operation we have introduced additional services to the European food chain and provide financial assistance to the small producers (European Union’s Cooperative Cooperative Agricultural Program for a Sustainable Future: COCA) and to the small consumers (Small Container-Assisted International Network). To our best knowledge, our service has been operational for less than a decade. To make sustainable food delivery more achievable, we have introduced a number of new service opportunities from Europe in the form of: (1) a comprehensive food service, (2) a sustainable food supply management system, and (3