Vegetable Supply Chain

Many interdependant business activities combine to deliver top quality fresh vegetables to retail grocers, caterers, supermarkets and ultimately your dinner table.

These business systems and relationships have developed between vegetable growers, their suppliers and buyers, often over several generations.

The main businesses in the vegetable supply chain include :

• Manufacturers - Fertilisers, Agrichemicals, Machinery, Irrigation, Packaging, Plant breeders etc.
  
  
• Wholesale Resellers - Agrichemicals, Machinery, Nurseries, Fertiliser, Fuel, Water etc.
  
  
• Service Providers - Agronomists, Transport and Distribution Logistics, Quality Assurance, Labor providers, Government regulators etc.
  
  
• Growers - Largely family owned businesses up to 1000 Hectares and 200 staff.  Growers supply local grocers, farmers markets, wholesalers, interstate agents, supermarkets, processors and export markets.
  
  
• Traders and Wholesale Buyers - Agents and Wholesalers source and supply a wide range of fresh vegetables and fruit to local grocers, interstate and export markets.
  
  
• Grocers, Supermarkets and Provodores - supply fresh vegetables and fruit to retail customers and restaurants, airlines, hospitals and hotels.
  
  
• Consumers - Fresh vegetables are available on your dinner table.

The success of each business depends heavily on the success of others in the supply chain. A crop surplus or failure can have a ripple effect on other parts of the supply chain, resulting in temporary gluts or shortages in supply and dramatic changes in the price of fresh vegetables.