Quality Assurance of International Fruit Supply Chains via Techno-Management

Fruit plays an important role in tropical horticulture and has high commercial value in domestic and international markets. There are several factors affecting the quality of fruit in the supply chain, including type of fruit, storage, distribution, harvesting, and packaging. This research was conducted to analyze the current situation regarding quality assurance in the international supply chain of tropical fruits by developing a tool to assess the level of quality assurance and chain collaboration. <i>A techno-managerial approach</i> was used in this research; therefore, a three-axes model was developed as the techno-managerial model. The three axes consist of degree of quality assurance, classes of fruit (regarding risk of chemical residue and quality deterioration), and degree of chain collaboration. For this study, five situations were chosen at random by considering the different degrees (from lowest degree to highest degree) of quality assurance and chain collaboration for each class of fruit. The results show that 10%–60% of importers require their suppliers to comply with quality assurance standards in Situation 1 (low-risk fruits, low degree of quality assurance, and low degree of chain collaboration) and Situation 2 (medium-risk fruits, low degree of quality assurance, and low degree of chain collaboration). Almost 100% of imported fruits have permeable peels which are removed before consumption. This group of fruit has medium-high perishable rate. With different types of fruits, the importers set different requirements with respect to quality assurance. Regarding chain participation, the most common situation is Situation 1 (more than 60%), in which the retailer has the biggest influence. The most common situation for suppliers who supply the product to import companies falls into Situation 2. This means that most of the commodities have permeable peels, so the suppliers follow the basic quality assurance standards and are at the low level in chain co-operation. Lastly, considering the usefulness of the model, it can be employed as a good tool in assessing the situation in practice.