In 2010, the European (EU) High Level Expert Group on milk proposed the introduction of standard contracts between raw milk producers and processors to improve the bargaining position of producers and to stabilize the market by balancing dairy supply and demand. However, contracts may distort...

The states of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Florida, United States collectively dominate the world supply of orange juice. Collectively, these two regions account for over 80 percent of world processed orange production (Spreen, et al). Florida is the prime supplier to the United States and Canada,...

An important indicator or even the crucial factor of the competitiveness of a company can be seen in its innovative capacity, i.e. the abstract capacity to launch continuous product innovations and to implement the required processes in the internal structure of an organization. This is also...

This paper focuses upon the case of alternative food supply chains (AFSCs) as a "laboratory" for the implementation of sustainability concepts on a larger scale. To realize this type of upscaling, two important conditions should be fulfilled: the initiatives have to combine a performing internal...

Structural change in the agricultural sector as well as in the whole agricultural value chain is an ongoing dynamic process and creates a number of diverse phenomena. The EU Strategy for Biofuels (2006) and the Biomass action plan (2005) set a clear signal that the EU wishes to establish and to...

Since Womack et al. (1990) published “The Machine that Changed the World”, showing the results of an international assembly plant benchmarking study carried out by the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program, the Lean Production paradigm, initially based on the Toyota Production System, has...

The process of developing appropriate supply chain performance measurement instruments is difficult due to the complexity of supply chains. This paper presents an overview and evaluation of the performance measurement instruments used in supply chain models. As a result it advances a framework...

Producers and retailers often limit their partnership to the simple implementation of a set of tools (advanced logistic techniques), our purpose was to understand the reasons that govern such choices, but neglecting the essence of the ECR, which is based on active cooperation between suppliers...

The EU food entrepreneurs are facing dramatic changes in the competition arena. Globalization and liberalization processes are offering cheaper food products in international markets, either from countries with better comparative advantages or with more efficient marketing strategies. At the...