Issues and Challenges in the Supply Chain of Fruits & Vegetables Sector in India: a Review

PurposeThe entire supply chain of Fruits and Vegetables in India is laden with various issues and challenges. To list the possible challenges and suggest a way forward, there is a need to study the supply chain of Fruits and Vegetables sector in India. So the purpose of this paper is to discuss the supply chain of fruits and vegetables sector in India and explain the issues which are affecting it. Authors also suggested the corresponding mitigation strategies to overcome the identified issues and challenges. Design/methodology/approach-Descriptive research has been used for this study. The supply chain of Fruits and Vegetables sector has been explained and attempt has been made towards identifying the issues affecting the supply chain of the sector. The present study undertakes a thorough review of basic and contemporary literature available and tries to explain the factors affecting the supply chain of Fruits and Vegetables sector in India. The literature has been divided into various themes according to the issues in the supply chain and an investigation has been attempted to identify various factors affecting the supply chain. FindingsThe study found that Cold Chain Facilities; Fragmented Supply Chain; Linkages and Integration between the partners; Taxation Issue; Infrastructure Facilities; Cost of Packaging Material; Technology and Techniques; Farmer's Knowledge and Awareness; Quality and Safety standards; Processing and Value Addition; Supply Chain inefficiency; Farmers income; Supply chain losses and wastage of fresh produce; Transportation facilities; Demand and market information etc. are the factors which constitutes serious challenges for Fruits and Vegetables sector and are affecting the overall growth of the agricultural development of India. Research limitations/implicationsThe authors have focuses only on Fruits and Vegetables sector, authors may look at other sector like food processing unit, cold chain and other perishable items such as meat, dairy industry, chocolate, beverages etc. Practical implicationsOvercoming these issues and challenges will benefit the decision makers and various stakeholders like the farmers, state government, transporters and food processing unit to understand the current status, issues and challenges for better planning and management in the field of fruits and vegetables supply chain. Originality/valueMost of the prior literature have been focused on the general issues like cold chain, marketing efficiency etc. of fruit and vegetables supply chain. There exists a need of having review on supply chain specifically in F&V sector, identifying all the factors affecting it and suggest mitigation strategies. This review fills this gap in the literature of supply chain management of Fruits and Vegetables sector. International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains (IJMVSC) Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2015 48