Title: Multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable supply chains in the agrifood sector

Authors: Dimitrios Aidonis; Dimitrios Folinas; Charisios Achillas; Dimitrios Triantafyllou; Giorgos Malindretos

Addresses: Department of Logistics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Kanellopoulou 2, 60100, Katerini, Greece ' Department of Logistics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Kanellopoulou 2, 60100, Katerini, Greece ' School of Economics, Business Administration and Legal Studies, International Hellenic University, 14th km Thessaloniki – Moudania, 57001 Thermi, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Logistics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Kanellopoulou 2, 60100, Katerini, Greece ' Harokopion University, El. Venizelou 70, 17671, Kallithea, Athens Greece

Abstract: The agrifood sector is considered as one of the leading sectors in Europe, in terms of turnover, value added and employment. The economic and political impact of this sector is recognised and emanates by the large number of participating companies in this industry that need to develop more sustainable approaches to food production, supported by integrated and efficient production systems. However, all agricultural sectors are not equally harmful to the environment, thus different agrifood supply chains should be assessed and prioritised in order for policy measures to become more effective. This paper aims at the development of a multi-criteria analysis approach that focuses on the prioritisation of agrifood supply chains with the use of specific socio-economic, technological and environmental criteria. The approach follows the path of outranking multi-criteria methods, ELECTRE III and PROMETHEE. For the assessment of the agrifood supply chains, policy makers and experts' views are taken into account.

Keywords: agrifood supply chains; policy making; multicriteria decision analysis; MCDA; ELECTRE III; PROMETHEE; sustainable supply chains; supply chain management; SCM; environmental criteria; technological criteria; socio-economic criteria; agriculture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSAMI.2015.070747

International Journal of Sustainable Agricultural Management and Informatics, 2015 Vol.1 No.2, pp.106 - 119

Received: 07 May 2014
Accepted: 08 Sep 2014

Published online: 23 Jul 2015 *

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