End-to-End Mapping Towards Sustainability: The Case of the Cretan Vegetable Supply Chain

The agri-food supply chains are often characterized by poor sustainability performance, even though the triple bottom line is referred among the agri-food industry’s top priorities. The various and heterogeneous stakeholders involved in the agri-food supply chain, the contradictory objectives and business mentalities of the actors, and the complicated processes and flows of materials/goods/information that take place throughout it are among the main factors for the low sustainability performance level. The case of the Greek Cretan vegetable supply chain is not an exception to this rule. To gain a comprehensive understanding of this sector, this research provides an end-to-end mapping of the Cretan vegetable supply chain, utilizing stakeholders’ participatory approaches and secondary data. The analysis highlights certain blockages of information flows and conflicting interactions among stakeholders, at the same time offering valuable insights and recommendations for future research and targeted policy-driven solutions.