Digitalisation Challenges in Food Supply Chains

Digitalisation plays a crucial role for companies competing in today's markets. This is a key issue, as it enables and ultimately ensures transparency, efficiency and quality of the entire supply chain, especially in the food industry and the downstream food supply chain. By integrating digital technologies such as Internet of Things devices, big data analytics and automated processes, the entire process from food production to delivery to the consumer can be more accurately tracked and optimised. However, digitalisation poses significant challenges for many actors in the food supply chain. The aim of this study is to explore and address the critical challenges with respect to digitalisation in food supply chains. We conduct a literature review and a qualitative analysis to gain detailed insight into the challenges of implementing digitalisation solutions in food supply chains, and a qualitative analysis with semi-structured interviews with 17 experts covering the entire spectrum of the food supply chain, from seed producers to retailers. One of the most salient topics identified by many experts is the quality of available data. This includes problems with data management like data quality, data interpretation, as well as the challenge of monitoring data in digitised systems. Another key issue concerns the challenges of implementing IT systems in the supply chain.