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Essay on The logistics of fresh fruit and vegetables coming to the US from South and Central America
The worldwide goods chain perception is just one of a number of approaches to inter-firm relations that draws on the simple idea that the design, production and marketing of products involves a chain of activities divided between different enterprises. Various authors have developed this idea in different ways. Exporters to the United States after Sept. 11, 2001 have had to make major adjustments to meet a mountain of tough, new federal regulations, rules that continue to pile up. Over the coming months, U.S. authorities will tighten the final screws on a behemoth, all-encompassing security machine, escalating costs for international trade.
Those added costs come as the United States negotiates a laundry list of bilateral trade deals as it heads toward completion by year's end of the granddaddy of them all, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), much-heralded as creating the world's richest trading bloc. Each smaller deal, too, hinges on actually being able to reach the world's most voracious consumer market, the US$11 trillion U.S. economy. Containing costs while complying with new rules is a constant challenge, especially when dealing with food and flowers that can spoil in hours if delayed. Poorly applied, security rules reduce the trade advantage of areas with geographic proximity to the United States, such as Central America, where 75% of exports are perishables like plants and fresh vegetables, fruit and seafood. The Latin American Association of Express Companies (Cladec) saw the writing on the wall months ago and began taking steps to make sure its customers' cargo, especially perishables, did not perish en route.
The inducement and capability determinants of demand for and supply of supermarket services differ obviously over the three regions, within individual countries, and within zones and between rural and urban areas at the country level. Several broad patterns are observed. First, from the earliest to the latest adopter of supermarkets.......
