A look at China’s produce supply chain
The very excellent All Roads Lead to China has a must read post from yesterday on the importance of the cold chain when it comes to the things we eat. Linking to an article from Cargo News Asia that indicates that approximately 30% of China’s total fruit and vegetable production is wasted, Richard breaks down the current supply chain model for produce in China:
Through a project a few years ago, I learned that the basic cycle of produce coming to market is that with the average farmer in China farming less than a single MU (660m2) of land, they will often consolidate their loads with neighbors through a simple program of dumping their produce on the street in front of their farms. A consolidator will make their way through the area and will pick up the loads and then dump them into a warehouse within the city/ district (depends on size) whereby the first sort will occur.
During the first sort, old or damage produce is separated from those that are sellable into the markets (local, regional, and export), and at that time anything that was lying on the ground or on the bottom of the truck will be essentially waste.
At this point, the goods will be consolidated once again and more than likely taken to another consolidator or delivered to market. Often times this transportation occurs without even boxing the produce, and it is highly unlikely that refrigeration is being used.. so what you have is a lot of produce that has been squashed at the bottom and exposed to the elements of the highway on the sides and top of the load… and will all end up waste.
The second to last step of this equation occurs at the grocery where the last sort is made by customers, and anyone who has ever bought bananas will know that stores never fully sell everything they stock. Well, in china the problem is larger as produce goes bad much faster from the lack of proper handling and refrigeration.
and without getting too graphic, you can only imagine what the process for meat and milk must be….
As Richard rightly mentions, this is a sustainability issue, because with proper investment in the supply chain to implement cold storage and transportation facilities, as well as improved packaging and handling standards, they could avoid a huge amount of wasted product. Head on over to Richard’s site for more details.
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