Food Losses and Waste in the Supply Chain of Fruit and Vegetables in the Netherlands

Food losses and waste in the supply chain of fruit and vegetables in the Netherlands

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Bachelor thesis

Hilde Geraerts

February, 2015

Wageningen University - Department of Social Sciences

Operations Research and Logistics

BSc Thesis

Food losses and waste in the supply chain of fruit and vegetables in the Netherlands.

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February, 2015

Student                        Hilde Geraerts

Registration number                940427257120

BSc program                        Management and Consumer studies 

Specialisation                        Management

Supervisor                        Drs. KGJ Pauls-Worm[pic 6]

Examiner/2nd supervisor        Prof. dr. ir. JGAJ van der Vorst

Thesis code                        YSS-81812

Foreword

As a part of my Bachelor program at the Wageningen University, I wrote this thesis about ‘Food losses and waste in the supply chain of fruit and vegetables in the Netherlands’.  

During twelve weeks I spend lots of time in writing this thesis. Although it was not always that easy, I learned a lot, about the subject of this thesis, and about doing research in general. Firstly, I am convinced that the problem of food waste needs more attention, and that there are lots of ways that this waste can be reduced. Furthermore, I became more aware of the food I wasted myself. It can be concluded that for me the problem of food waste has become clearer and I hope the problem will be clearer for the readers of this thesis.

I am glad that I have extended my thesis with an additional part. For me this has given me the possibility to further deepening in the subject of inventory management, which has got my attention while writing the first part of my thesis.

Furthermore, while writing this thesis for me it also made clearer what my personal study interests are. For me, writing this thesis, made clear that in my further study I want to have more focus on more mathematical subjects.

During this writing process, I was glad with the help of people that supported me. Firstly I will thank my supervisor Karin Pauls-Worm for supporting me and have a critical look at my work. Although I was sometimes not so convinced about my own work, you were always critical but also positive which helped me a lot in finishing this thesis.