Sustainable agri-food supply chains: contemporary and new challenges in logistics terms

Recent events related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, are leaving a lasting mark on supply chains, changing previous logistical paradigms. As a threat from outside the economic system, COVID-19 instantly transformed global supply chains: in addition to other issues, it became more difficult to transport, monitor and control products between different locations around the world. In turn, the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s largest cereal producers, has dramatically reduced the supply of cereals in global markets. As a result, cereal supply chains (especially those destined to Africa) have been disrupted, causing significant shortages of these products. Also, from an economic perspective, this resulted in skyrocketing prices of raw cereals on global commodity exchanges.
Faced with temporary food shortages, consumers are beginning to appreciate what is local: accessible, safer, proven and tested. They are also changing their shopping habits, especially in terms of how they shop and what type of products they put in their basket. These changes are manifested by an increase in online sales and by the consumers buying more but less frequently. However, irrational shopping and increased food wastage are becoming a negative effect of these developments.