Measuring the fragility of agribusiness value chains : a case study of the South African lamb chain

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Authors

Jordaan, Daniel Du Plessis Scheepers
Kirsten, Johann F.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Wageningen Academic Publishers

Abstract

The ability to determine the fragility of agribusiness value chains is valuable to agribusiness management practitioners and scholars in a context where risk and uncertainty are increasingly pervasive, consequential and unpredictable. The paper argues for determining the fragility of a chain to adverse events rather than trying to predict the probability and impact of such events. The paper specifically proposes a framework to detect and quantify non-linear consequences in response to progressively deteriorating chain fragility factors. The paper’s approach is a novel alternative to the traditional value chain ‘risk assessment’. Application of the framework to the South African lamb chain reveals that a number of specific factors, like quality and safety performance and cash flow position, have consistently high fragility scores throughout the chain while some factors are uniquely localized to a specific role-player or activity, which highlights the techno-economic uniqueness of individual activities in a chain.

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Keywords

Agribusiness risk, Chain risk, Uncertainty, Chain fragility

Sustainable Development Goals

Citation

Jordaan, D.P.S. & Kirsten, J.F. 2019, 'Measuring the fragility of agribusiness value chains: a case study of the South African lamb chain', International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 137-154.