Food quality attributes of consumer-driven chains for fresh food products: Chain integration for fish from Kenya, vegetables in China, and tropical fruit from Costa Rica

The potential for sales of fresh food products from developing countries to high-value markets is not fully reached. The aim of this project is to apply recent innovations in scientific approaches to develop a structured quantitative methodology for the design of viable export supply chains for fresh commodities to developed countries. Viable global production chains for fresh commodities from developing countries have to be technologically feasible, socially desirable (to consumers as well as chain actors) and economically sound to become successful. The postdoc researcher will study the technological feasibility and part of the social desirability, namely those elements of the production chain that affect the consumers. The research objective will be addressed by a stepwise approach that consists of the determination of consumers preferences (6 months), analysis of important aspects of global production chains (production and processing procedures, actor analysis, and food safety aspects) (6 months), design of viable global production chains (9 months), and evaluation of the applied research methodology resulting in a structured approach for the design of global production chains on the basis of consumer preferences (3 months). During the first step of the project an inventory will be made of the quality demands and preferences of consumers with respect to the products that are central to the PhD projects, namely fish (from Kenya), vegetables (from China) and fruits (from Costa Rica). The most relevant preferences will be treated as the so-called "the voice of the consumer", which will then be used as an input for a structured approach, called Quality Function Deployment (QFD), to translate the consumer preferences into technological product specifications. Next, the global production chains for the commodities in the study will be assessed and analysed, focusing on the quantification of activities and identification of responsible actors that impact the quality requirements of the consumers. The next step of the project consists of the design of optimal global production chains, in which the search for alternative technological solutions to quality problems is central. Finally, the applicability of our research methodology to similar problems in globalisation will be discussed, recommendations for improvement will be given and general guidelines will be abstracted.