Transportation barriers in local and regional food supply chains

Caroline Krejci, Amy Marusak, Anuj Mittal, Narjes Sadeghiamirshahidi and Sue Beckwith

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2024, vol. 14, issue 1

Abstract: Large-scale food supply chains in the U.S. are cost efficient but lack resilience to external shocks. One approach to increasing food system resilience is through regionalization, in which a large and distributed network of diverse and independent farms provides redundancy and spreads out risk. However, the decentralized structure of regional food supply chains (RFSCs) inhibits transporta­tion efficiencies, which increases producers’ costs and limits their market reach. Outsourcing trans­portation to commercial carriers and collaborating with other producers are two highly recom­mend­ed strategies for improving RFSC transpor­tation efficiency, but research on producers’ perceptions of these strategies is limited. This paper describes research that seeks to understand the major transportation barriers that prevent RFSC pro­ducers from efficiently reaching broader markets and how these barriers might be overcome. Focus groups with RFSC pro­ducers throughout the U.S. state of Texas were administered, with results indicating that partici­pants view transportation as a significant barrier to their businesses’ growth and financial success. Out­sourcing transportation to commercial carriers is viewed as a highly desira­ble alternative to self-delivery but is also con­sidered to be expensive and insufficiently flexible. Nearly all participants were excited about the idea of collaborative transporta­tion, but there were serious concerns about compe­tition and logistical coordination. Despite these barriers, the results suggest that the formation of regional transporta­tion cooperatives and/or the development of information and communication technology infrastructure to facilitate collaboration could provide a path forward. Moreover, the criti­cality of transportation for RFSCs underscores the need for public funding to support implementation of these strategies.

Keywords: Demand; and; Price; Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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