Recommendations for Rice Supply Chain of Pakistan

Recommendations for Rice supply chain of Pakistan

Introduction

Hundreds of years ago, Napoleon made a remark “An army marches on its stomach”, he made this remark as he understood the importance of what we would call an efficient supply chain. The day to day demand of providing an army with enough fuel, food, shelter and ammunition is necessary (Hugos, 2011). Such is the case with well-organized supply chain. Pakistan rice supply chain consists of six major stakeholders i-e farmers, community enterprise, rice mills, the local retailers, rice consumers and the rice department. The traditional rice chain of Pakistan is not very efficient and cannot be able to compete with the change in global scenario so a redesign strategy must be follow to remove the risks attached which the current supply chain and focus on delivering key outcomes. Some of the major supply chain areas need work to rectify the current situation, these problems have been discussed thoroughly in the previous report. The remedies include factors such as alternative energy source, efficient logistics system, collaborative framework, forecasting of future demand, inventory planning, minimising the role of intermediaries, relocating shipment for export purposes and guiding the farmers. These problems have decreased more than 30% share of the rice industry from the Gulf market during last 5 years. Export chain sector is a big part contributing towards whole supply chain of rice industry. The overall cost of importing is lower than exporting thus putting a negative effect on the competitiveness of rice supply chain. Those companies that learn how to build and participate in strong supply chains will have a substantial competitive advantage in their markets (Hugos, 2011).

A weakness anywhere in the chain results in the chain as a whole failing to achieve its competitive potential. In other words, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link (Sweeney, 2002). The supply chain analysts need to focus more on cost, responsiveness and resilience along the chain.

Energy crisis

The energy and power crisis in Pakistan is getting worse and no serious action has been taken by any government up til now. The short term solutions such as imported oil-run generators are not the answer here.

Unlike Pakistan, many supply chain industries in different countries are relying on the other energy solutions such as wind and solar energy. With the solar energy hitting the top list companies like Johnson & Johnson, Dell, and Intel are using their unused rooftops for the solar energy increasing their energy efficiency and maximising the purchase of green power (Nate Lew, 2015). Wind turbines can fulfil the agricultural demand of Pakistan. Wind power is the fastest growing energy in the whole world (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014). Normal wind towers can generate