Evaluating resilience in food supply chains during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 outbreak has revealed weaknesses in the supply chains (SCs) and how easily it can be influenced by these disruptions. Food supply chains (FSCs) is one of the most affected SCs, and it needs to be more resilient against SC disruptions because their vulnerable structure such as having perishable products. Therefore, this article aims to uncover the need for resilience in FSCs during the COVID-19 outbreak. For this purpose, the enablers of resilience on FSCs are determined after a detailed examination of the current literature. Then, the graph theory matrix approach has been used to reveal the relationships between these enablers and investigate importance of enablers of resilience in FSCs during COVID-19 outbreak. It is significant to determine preference of enablers and rank of importance to take actions effectively. Depending on the results, the rank orders of the enablers are classified as readiness, collaboration with stakeholders, IT alignment, risk aware, responsiveness, flexibility, appearance and sustainability, respectively. Suggested implications can be provided benefits for policymakers and managers in FSCs.

KEYWORDS:

• Food supply chain
• COVID-19 outbreak
• resilience
• enablers
• graph theory matrix approach

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).