Smart logistics solutions to help trim food waste
THE European Union-Asean (EUAsean) forum on food logistics was held last week in Kuala Lumpur.
The forum gathered renowned leaders in the food and logistics industry to discuss the topics of agri-food logistics, e-commerce and urban logistics.
EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer Roberto Benetello stressed the importance of robust food supply chains, food safety, sustainability and other market requirements.
The fast growing middle-class as well as the high electronic commerce and mobile-commerce penetration has made Southeast Asia one of the leading consumer markets in the world.
Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute deputy director Aniadila Kamaruddin and Dr Albert Tan from the Malaysian Institute for Supply Chain Innovation spoke on food wastage in supply chains.
According to Aniadila, food loss and waste was a serious issue in Malaysia that was caused by consumers, trade, processors, logistics and farmers.
All supply chain parties have the responsibility to reduce food waste. Therefore, it is essential to create awareness and education in tackling the issue.
One of the main losses in agrifood supply chain is due to poor cold chain management.
According to Tan, this is caused by the lack of professional skills, lack of quality and safetycontrol measures by governments, long supply chains through many middle-parties involved and poor infrastructure.
Newcold director Raymond de Graaf said food product quality deterioration and decay started right from the moment of harvest (fruits and vegetables), slaughter (livestock) and catch (marine products).
Within six hours, the food products need to enter the cold chain in order to preserve the products in accordance to health regulations.
This is also needed in order to maintain nutrients, texture, flavour, appearance and moisture in food.
The biggest wastage in the food supply chain is in the wholesale and logistics. Therefore, the cold chain industry can significantly contribute to a massive reduction of wastage through more advanced technology, modern cold distribution centre facilities and distribution network, in collaboration with government regulations on product ranges that should be mandatory and subject to temperature-controlled supply chain conditions.
Large cold distribution centre facilities are necessary in order to achieve economies of scale and cost-effective operations in Asia.
In Southeast Asia, e-commerce and urban logistics have seen a massive growth in food and supermarket deliveries.
Collaboration among logistics service providers is essential to ensure high utilisation of trucks and minimise the number of drivers needed for urban logistics. Therefore, governments must play a regulatory role in ensuring an efficient and sustainable urban logistics.
Smart logistics solutions based on new combinations of existing technologies in complex local environments are often needed in Asia. A good example was given by Daniel Pans of DPO International that used a truck in combination with five motorbikes to deliver goods in Jakarta.
At the moment, advanced solutions like drones and automated guided vehicles are still too expensive to use for last-mile deliveries in Asia, but according to the panel of experts, it would certainly be common in about 10 years.
The biggest wastage in the food supply chain is in the wholesale and logistics. Therefore, the cold chain industry can significantly contribute to a massive reduction of wastage through more advanced technology, modern cold distribution centre facilities and distribution network...