Demand-Side Actors in Agricultural Supply Chain Sustainability: An Assessment of Motivations for Action, Implementation Challenges, and Research Frontiers

Carina Mueller (), Christopher West, Mairon G. Bastos Lima () and Bob Doherty
Additional contact information
Carina Mueller: Stockholm Environment Institute York, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO10 5NG, UK
Christopher West: Stockholm Environment Institute York, Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York YO10 5NG, UK
Mairon G. Bastos Lima: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), 10451 Stockholm, Sweden
Bob Doherty: School for Business and Society, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK

World, 2023, vol. 4, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Agricultural supply chains of forest-risk commodities such as soy, palm oil, and cocoa have risen to the top of the global sustainability agenda. Demand-side actors, including consumer-goods companies, retailers, and civil society organizations have coalesced around a growing number of sustainable supply chain policies. However, despite rapid advances in tools and methods to convert data into useful information about impacts and policy effectiveness, and their implementation for decision-making is lagging. There is an urgent need to examine such demand-led action and understand how to accelerate progress towards agricultural supply chain sustainability. Here, we explore how demand-side actors within globalized supply chains see limitations in knowledge and barriers to progress in the context of forest-risk commodities. We draw from 20 semi-structured interviews and two focus group discussions with manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, and data providers. Our findings show that civil society pressure in consumer regions is perceived as a key driver guiding action, that certification is commonly sought to reduce detrimental impacts, but that collaboration to tackle systemic issues remains a gap. Companies also highlight the need for simple, timely, and meaningful metrics to assess impacts—practical usability concerns that need to be considered in the search for ever-greater accuracy in capturing complex phenomena.

Keywords: sustainable sourcing; traceability; supply chain; corporate sustainability; deforestation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 G17 G18 L21 L22 L25 L26 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 R51 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/4/3/35/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/4/3/35/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jworld:v:4:y:2023:i:3:p:35-588:d:1234706

Access Statistics for this article

World is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Hu

More articles in World from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().