As a part of the Reimagining Supply Chains Initiative, I am currently working on an article together with Katinka Bjørndal Thomsen, Andreas Wieland and Philip Beske-Janssen concerning the political aspects of supply chain management (SCM). In the article, we seek to bridge political theory and SCM in a way that benefits not just researchers but also the managers of complex supply chains. We do so by investigating the political causal mechanisms underlying the management of the coffee supply chain. These causal mechanisms can help us better understand how the coffee supply chain works and what challenges companies within the supply chain face.
In relation to this research, we are currently investigating the existing literature on coffee supply chains. Several researchers have investigated the conditions of the supply chain – most of them with a strong focus on both social and environmental sustainability. Take for instance a recent article by Candelo et al. (2018), where the researchers discuss the possibility of turning low-power farmers into actual business partners. Through cooperation between corporations, NGOs and such low-power stakeholders, the researchers argue that many of the vulnerabilities of the coffee supply chain can be solved (Candelo et al., 2018). Similarly, Lerner et al. (2021) investigate the unfair trade present in the supply chain, where flucturating coffee prices lead to a great imbalance of power between growers and negotiators. This vulnerability of the industry is further reinforced by institutional failures and infrastructure gaps as a result of a weak institutional framework in coffee-producing countries (Lerner et al., 2021). Thus, all actors in the supply chain are faced with a highly volatile environment that poses many challenges to the individual actors.
A situation that has certainly proven the vulnerability of the coffee supply chain is the COVID-19 pandemic. Following recent research by Guido et al. (2020) and Ramos et al. (2021), the pandemic has doubtlessly put the supply chain under pressure. Research has shown that the pandemic has resulted in both a shortage in inputs of raw materials and a shortage in labor due to transportation constraints (Ramos et al., 2021). Additionally, prices have fluctuated during the pandemic, but due to the nature of the coffee crop, farmers are unable to switch to other crops during times of uncertainty as it is too expensive. In other words, COVID-19 accentuates the existing vulnerabilities in the supply chain (Guido et al., 2020; Ramos et al., 2021) and create new ones (Guido et al., 2020).
To conclude, we seek to contribute to this by expanding the research on the political mechanisms underlying the coffee supply chain. We believe that it can be fruitful for many researchers in different contexts across the SCM discipline to gain a better understanding of how complex supply chains functions. We look forward to sharing more of our research.
Candelo, E., Casalegno, C., Civera, C. and Mosca, F. (2018), “Turning farmers into business partners through value co-creation projects. Insights from the coffee supply chain”, Sustainability (Switzerland), Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 15–17.
Guido, Z., Knudson, C. and Rhiney, K. (2020), “Will COVID-19 be one shock too many for smallholder coffee livelihoods?”, World Development, Vol. 136, p. 105172.
Lerner, D.G., Pereira, H.M.F., Saes, M.S.M. and de Oliveira, G.M. (2021), “When unfair trade is also at home: The economic sustainability of coffee farms”, Sustainability (Switzerland), Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 1–14.
Ramos, E., Patrucco, A.S. and Chavez, M. (2021), “Dynamic capabilities in the ‘new normal’: a study of organizational flexibility, integration and agility in the Peruvian coffee supply chain”, Supply Chain Management, No. June, available at:https://doi.org/10.1108/SCM-12-2020-0620.
Photo by Mike Kenneally on Unsplash.
