SUPPLY AND VALUE CHAINS

Agri-food supply and value chains are important for regional Australia’s economy since Australia produces a variety of agri-food products such as meats, seafood, grains, legumes, and horticulture products, which are distributed to domestic and international markets. Understanding the structure and processes of supply chains offers stakeholders such as producers, industry associations, and government the opportunity to identify issues and opportunities linked to the distribution network of agri-food products. The Supply and Value Chains research theme helps to create new knowledge, synergies and direction of food systems supply chains in relationship building, value creation, risks identification and measuring inefficiencies. Moreover, this theme will offer in-depth research, innovation, and development in supply chain collaboration at both horizontal and vertical enterprise levels as well as across state, national and international dimensions.

Key areas of research and activities include:

Agricultural supply and value chain
Resilient supply chain management
Global value chain design and optimisation
Transport, freight, and logistics services
Supply chain policy development

Key capabilities include:

Supply chain collaboration modelling
Agri-food value chain analysis
Transport, logistics and service optimization analysis
Decision support system development

Delwar Akbar standing in front of a brick wall smiling

THEME LEADER - PROFESSOR DELWAR AKBAR - DIRECTOR, CRESC

Professor Delwar Akbar is a regional economist and research leader in supply and value chain research, who has been working with rural and regional industries and businesses to improve their productivity and sustainability. His research during the last decade has focused predominantly on rural and regional economics, value chain analysis, property and health economics, economic impact assessment and regional development. Along with other researchers, he has received significant levels of funding support (approx. $5.5 million) through Category 1-4 grants. He has integrated economic models with supply chain, services and planning models. Recently, he has been developing and testing collaborative business models that could bolster rural economic dynamics and international trade. Over his academic career, he has been involved with more than 60 research and consultancy projects, and published over 110 refereed papers and project reports.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Water Security for Northern Australia -codesign phase (AT.7.2122013)

Lead Chief Investigator - Professor John Rolfe

Central Queensland regional agriculture supply chain baseline study (a.1.2021029)

Lead Chief investigator - Associate Professor - Delwar Akbar

FinTechs: Friends or Foes? Perspectives of Australian accountants and financial advisers

Lead Chief Investigator - Dr Tasadduq Imam

Enhancing Foodbank's Stakeholder Engagement

Lead Chief Investigator - Dr Upamali Amarakoon

Supply chain and market incentives for water quality