Towards consumer driven and innovative fruit supply chains

This paper aims to identify supply chain organization and management structures that maximize innovation in consumer driven fruit supply chains with the ultimate goal of increasing European fruit consumption. Data was collected on the chain organization, management structures and innovativeness of ten innovative fruit supply chains in Poland, Spain, Greece and The Netherlands using two questionnaires for each chain actor. The supply chains have been analysed based on a conceptual framework of mechanisms underlying supply chain management. After comparing the selected fruit supply chains against the conceptual framework, critical success factors (CSFs) were derived for fruit supply chain innovativeness. For every type of fruit chain, it is important to have a customer focus, a quality management system implementing tracking and tracing, and a lead firm in the chain that initiates, stimulates and coordinates the implementation of innovations. A typology of consumer driven innovative fruit supply chains is proposed based on the different combinations of network use and formality of the innovation strategy in the chains. The choice of type for a chain depends on the entrepreneurial style, type of product (fresh or processed) and size of the companies. The guidelines support the identification of CSFs.