Developments and Needs for Sustainable Agro-Logistics in Developing Countries

The Multi-Donor Trust Fund for
Sustainable Logistics (MDTF-SL) aims at promoting innovative
assistance projects that can break new grounds, test new
ideas, and generate new knowledge for sustainable logistics
that can be replicated in other countries and project. In
November 2013 we were asked to write a position paper that
analyses the state of affairs in Agro-Logistics. It aims to:
(1) review and suggest a conceptual grounding for the
MDTF-SL's activities; (2) outline the specific
challenges developing countries face on Agro-Logistics; and
(3) review existing attempts or interventions to meet the
identified challenges. This position note starts with a
definition for agro-logistics to have a mutual understanding
of the concept. Section two presents emerging global trends
and developments, which are then, translated to key
logistics objectives in section three. Next, in section
four, five international cases are presented that illustrate
the needs and key bottlenecks in agro-logistics for
developing countries. Section five presents an overview of
potential interventions to improve logistics performances,
resulting in recommendations (section six).