Purpose: The location of actors and production, transformation, commercialization and distribution facilities generate the configuration of the perishable food supply chain (PFSC). The logistics network design (LND) lead to different supply, storage and distribution environments and result in flows, these logistics operations have an impact on the performance of the chain of fresh agricultural products. Specifically, in the PFSC with seasonality, a temporary imbalance between supply and demand is generated, which affects the balance in the flows and affects the losses, costs and response capacity. This research study that problem.Design/methodology/approach: A multi-echelon, multi-objective and multi-product model is established that determines the configuration of the logistics network of the PFSC with seasonally and allows actors to approach efficiency frontiers, which contribute to their permanence in the markets. The model was applied to the case of the perishable fruit supply chain, in a developing country, Colombia. The population information was taken from government surveys and studies, which allowed parameterizing the model.Findings: The application of model permitted to answer the next questions: How does improve the performance from PFSC through logistics network design? And, How the existence of smallholdings in food production and from retail merchants is preserved? In the perishable food supply chain.Social implications: Where the perishable food supply chain actors are located in non-efficient borders and their sustainability may be affected by competition factors, the stakeholders should focus on increasing food availability and reducing losses to improve access and therefore food security.Originality/value: A new model for the logistics network configurations of seasonal perishable fruit supply chain was development, the optimizing from five objectives with two sub-models is obtained, one for surplus and the other for the deficit moments. The model includes real conditions, such as, fruit loss due T0 and RH by different thermal floors and the means used for the transport of fruits in mountain areas at countries in route of development. The impact over the small producers, retailers and consumers in the times of scarcity or surplus was analyzed.

The supply chains of perishable food (PFSC) fresh, present imbalances between supply and demand, in times of supply deficit is necessary to guarantee the food security through the availability, the access and other pillars. In the PFSC losses are highest, whereby the delivery times must be low to guarantee the availability. For the access, must be include the largest number of retailed storekeepers, thus monopolies from large hypermarkets are avoided. In this context, the modeling In PFSC presents big challenges such as the inclusion of delivery times, losses and fresh food biophysical specific conditions which depend of the transport time and storage, the configuration and the number of echelons on the PFSC. In this article, a multiobjective, multiproduct and multi-echelon for perishable food logistics networks design mixed linear programming model is presented. The model allows determining the best configuration so that the different actors of the PFSC, so that could move closer to more efficient borders. The model considers the losses in perishable food derived from the impacts caused by changes in temperature (T°) and relative humidity (RH), on a mountainous environment of developing countries. It is solved in AMPL through e-constrains method. The model is applied in a case study around the perishable fruit supply chains (PFrSC). The information to the model parameterization was obtained through surveys done to the actors of the different echelons of PFrSC during a 4-year period that were complemented with secondary information from public and private enterprises.

Purpose: A common problem in mega cities is congestion, due to the size of the automotive park, this makes that the perishable foods decreasing their organoleptic characteristics or increases their losses, which requires considering the effect of time on routing problems. The state of the art demonstrates the need to formulate new routing models that include the specific characteristics of perishable foods in order to reduce their losses.Design/methodology/approach: A mathematical model was formulated based on two classical models: the three-index vehicle flow model proposed by (Golden, Assad, Levy & Gheysens, 1984) and the time window model proposed by (Cordeau, Desaulniers, Desrosiers, Solomon & Soumis, 1999). We proposed a novel VRP Model that permits reductions loss due to the perishable.Findings: The optimum cost is found with AMP® for twenty nodes, six vehicles and six fruits. For more nodes, a two-phase strategy is proposed, first a clustering based on a modified p-median model and then a VRP for each cluster.Research limitations/implications: The results showed the need to investigate multi-objective models, since the performance measures can be efficiency, quality and response capacity; the model can be applied in other supply chains of perishable foods.Social implications: According to FAO in Logistics practices in the last mile generate between 10-30% of the perishable food loss in developing countries’ mega-cities.Originality/value: A last-mile logistics strategy is proposed to manage delivery routes for fresh fruits in mega-cities, considering the effect of congestion through travel time in the perishability function. The new model it uses the flow variable to control the amount of each fruit arriving to each node and the time variable to define fruit waste or loss depending on the time and type of fruit.

Green hydrogen (RH2) can be used as a clean fuel and as energy vector. For this reason, it is a promising solution to the problems faced by the renewable energy (RE) industry. One determining factor for achieving its practical implementation is the correct configuration of its supply chain. This study compares different hydrogen supply chain (HSC) configurations. RH2 production will be by water electrolysis using RE in the Colombian Caribbean region, then, converted into Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC), Cryogenic Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) or Compressed Hydrogen Gas (GH2), later, transported by trucks and delivered to meet the projected demand of the transportation sector. In the reference scenario, we found that the best alternative is to produce RH2 using an AEC-type electrolyser (alkaline electrolysis cells) powered by wind energy and convert it to GH2 at 350 bar for transportation and storage. Then, scenarios of demand, one-way distance and WACC were considered for projections between 2030 and 2050. The results showed that can be determined the one-way distance from which converting and transporting RH2 as LOHC is the best alternative and, also can be determined this limit for demand values, which allows us to identify the best configuration of the HSC.