Supply Chain Lag filled by Vertical Farms during Covid-19

 

 Hi, I’m Jithin Sunil- A final year MBA student from Amrita School of Business. Welcome to my Logistics and Supply Chain Management learning room. In this blog I am going to talk about how Vertical farms fill produce supply chain lag during pandemic.

The big panic in 2020 shows how long it takes for food to be purchased from farm to market. The curtain has been flipped in something the customer never thinks about — logistics of the supply chain. The issue was not actually a shortage of food because of vacant food store shelves, but a sweeping change in demand, which led to sputter of conventional distribution engines.

Senior farms have had difficulties in being an effective influence on the food market. Their goods are typically restricted to greens, and many have been hit by high labour costs. But in a more sustainable food environment, the pandemic explained its position. Vertical farms are able to satisfy supermarket shelves while conventional farms are struggling with their hyper location and their ability to rapidly produce new crops.

"We are a really critical part of this food supply chain, and we can fill a gap when there is a crisis," said Shireen Santosham, head of strategic initiatives at Plenty, which sells vegetables at 20 locations around the San Francisco Bay area.

Location always has been a core part of the vertical farm appeal and business model. During the pandemic, many have taken advantage of the fact that their growing operations often use abandoned warehouses in urban areas and therefore are much closer to retail stores.

A vertical, robotic farm running 600,000 square-foot vertical farm on Fifth Season Link in Pittsburgh's food deserts. Just 24 hours after the greens were selected he delivered the daily food to food stores. In the past few months, his business has seen orders rise 50%, even as its demand for restaurants has decreased.

In particular during a pandemic, the customer profits from the fast turnaround. According to Vandenbussche, vertical farm greens usually last longer after buying, as long as conventional goods are not out of the soil. So if any visit to the grocery store is a risk, shoppers search for items that last longer than a couple of days.

Aero Farms claims that its benefit is that in one-third, the conventional farms usually have 12 days to grow baby greens. In New Jersey, Aero Farms manages four vertical farms that harvest almost 2 million pounds of aeroponic mist per year instead of traditional irrigation, resulting in 95 percent less water use than conventional farms. Marc Oshima, co-founder and marketing director of Aero Farms, said that most farms in the field do not have the versatility to adapt to a rapid shift in market demand

Since the beginning of March several retailers have seen a triple rise in demand. The pandemic opened new retail partners for Plenty, considering the instability in the supply chain and the discovery of alternatives for sustaining full shelves, according to executives.

Much has been able to satisfy the demand, as its placement volume in new stores has increased but coronavirus accelerated its speed, said Kirkpatrick.

Vertical farms intend to take advantage of this moment. Empty shelves of the normal brands of a consumer help customer overcome the initial obstacle to test a new product, for instance those offered by Plenty. When people try the goods of Plenty, they generally remain with the brand according to Kirkpatrick. So, plenty has seen demand remain at its pace even though the panic buying has slowed down, he said.

Whilst COVID‐19 is unlikely to be spread by food contamination by the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization guidelines, vertical farms use improved knowledge of the food supply chain by their customers to make their commodity a safer and better alternative.

Consumers will continue to gravitate towards local clean options because, now more than ever, they're thinking about where is my food coming from, who is touching it and how has it been processed.

Happy Learning !! 😊