Will emerging local supply chains be resilient?

In France, as in many other countries, one immediate impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been to give a strong impulse to the development of short supply chains in the agri-food sector, chains that are part of the more general hybrid type of organizational arrangements. This response to the pandemic resulted from changes in the strategy of producers as well as in demand from consumers. It raises a few questions to be developed below. First, was this reaction a response to disruptions in the existing long-distance (global) supply chains? Second, does it represent a significant part of the distribution network? Third, now that the pandemic is (slowly) regressing in Europe, do local supply chains look resilient or not? Although we are still far from benefiting of required data to substantiate the arguments, this short essay provides some food-for-thought on these three issues. A disruption in existing supply chains? The exponential development of long distance supply chains over the last decades benefited from radical innovations on the technological side and from the increasing demand for diversified agricultural products. On the technological side, containerization, controlled atmosphere, cargo sizes and speed, fuel efficiency and satellite navigation systems have considerably reduced freight costs, enabled long-distance sourcing, and allowed the diversification of the supply base of food for retailers and processors. On the demand side, new patterns of consumption have emerged, with buyers requesting an extended variety of products and becoming health and diet conscious so that they pay increased attention to quality.