Tackling Food Waste in Australia through Innovative Supply Chain Management

Running head: GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT
GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT
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2GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................................3
Tackling the problem of Food Waste in Australia through initiatives of innovative supply chain
management..................................................................................................................................................3
1. Nature of the problem of Food wastage in Australia.................................................................................3
2. Food Wastage and hunger issues in other parts of the world...................................................................4
3. Review of best practices as per academic literature..................................................................................6
4. Supply Chain and Logistics solutions..........................................................................................................8
5. Innovative Supply technologies for reducing food waste..........................................................................9
Conclusion......................................................................................................................................................9
Reference List...............................................................................................................................................10

3GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT
Introduction
Wastage of food has become an escalating trend in Australia. As per the government
report, it can be argued that there is approximately US$100 million of food wastage every
year in Australia. Subsequently, the global scarcity of foods leads to hunger and malnutrition
and in response to this the Australian food wastage has a negative impact in the global
scenario. In response to this, the purpose of this report is to create a better understanding of
the prevention of foods by implementing an innovative supply chain management. Moreover,
in course of the discussion, the report also incorporates literature review on the global as well
as on Australia with the aim to mitigate the food wastage in Australia.
Tackling the problem of Food Waste in Australia through initiatives of innovative
supply chain management
1. Nature of the problem of Food wastage in Australia
On one hand where approximately 870 million people around the globe are
impoverished and are victims of malnutrition, Australia on the other hand, Australia have
cropped up an unnecessary problem of food wastage on their own. According to the statistics
provided by the United Nations’ Food and Agro division, a deficit of $30 million USD is
responsible for the global hunger, whereas the valuation of the wasted food every year in
Australia is around $100 million USD approximately. In fact the UN (FAO) have confirmed
that about one third of the food produced in Australia goes in to waste. Majority of Australia
have more than 20% of their produced food as leftover. Daley (2016), critically pointed out
that every single Australian dumps about 140 kilograms of food every year and the
accumulated amount is sufficient to fill up about 450000 trucks every year. However, Dung
et al. (2014) have aimed to explore the reason why the Australians have adopted such a
practice. They have reached a conclusion that this issue is a combined outcome of casual

4GLOBAL LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGAMENT
consumer behaviour and dearth of proper communication in the supply chain of processed or
prepared food. About 20 to 40% of the farm fresh fruits and vegetables are rejected by the
Australians even before they reach the supermarkets. This is the poignant outcome of the
unrealistic aesthetic consumer dispositions. They are over-concerned about the outer
appearance of the fruits and vegetables. Hence those fruits or vegetables that the Australian
manufacturers find to be tampered or bearing blackish bloats are rejected then and there.
According to the opinion of Girotto, Alibardi and Cossu (2015), the fishing industry
of Australia also equally contributes towards food wastage in Australia. In the Southern
Ocean, over fishing have early brought about a catastrophe. As an impending outcome, the
population of some major seafood species have become seriously lean to only 10% compared
to their level of produce in 1950s. In spite of this trend, Graham-Rowe, Jessop and Sparks
(2014), informs that the Australians discard more than 60 percent of the fishes that are being
caught every year. The fishing industry is mostly pro-active in the South eastern Australian
zone. 20000 tonnes of fish product is wasted by the Australians per year. In fact, Kiran et al.
(2014), opines in this context that the food labelling is one major reason the Australians have
grown this mentally to waste food. Confusion regarding Manufacturing dates and expiry
dates printed in the brand packages have enticed the Australians to throw away perfectly
edible products long before they are really outdated. The same scenario exists in the
restaurants also. In fact (), opines that owing to excessive food wastage and consequently
excessive food cooking in Australia, the Carbon food print have increased to about 3.3
gigatonnes CO2 equivalent, making the pollution rate third after the US and China only. Only
food wastage is responsible for the outcome of 15 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide
equivalent being produced throughout Australia every year.
2. Food Wastage and hunger issues in other parts of the world