List A: Retail change relating to the fresh food supply
chain (Tables 8.2 to 8.4)
There are three strong influences that shape the fresh food supply chain
in today’s retailing business: daily demand for fresh food, the need for
the ‘right’ freshness, and retail leadership and pace in the supply chain.
Customers are demanding a daily supply of fresh product throughout
the year, and retailing and fresh food supply chains need to be structured
and organized to supply this daily demand for fresh product. Part
of this structure is a logistics organization that can deliver fresh product
to the retail outlets ‘at the right freshness’ so that it is in a condition that
is correct for the product and provides the customer with as long a shelflife
in the home as is possible. This is a critical success factor for the
mass sale of fresh products. It is part of delivering the marketing
promise. The final and highly significant influence on the fresh food
supply chain is the leadership from retailers. They set the pace of fresh
food logistics and take on the responsibility of leadership and supply
chain direction with most suppliers. There may well be situations where
the retailers have yet to take on this role but that is only a matter of time
given the need to meet consumer demands. Forward-looking suppliers
can readily get involved in such processes by working with retailers.