The Influence of Disruptive Technologies on the Resilient and Sustainable Performance of Agri-Food Supply Chains in the Face of COVID-19 Pandemic

多年来，对农产品的需求一直在增加，特别是易腐农产品，如新鲜农产品，乳制品，肉类，水果和蔬菜，主要是在发达国家，由于人们对这些产品的营养需求的理解，他们的健康和福祉（Stone和Rahimifard，2018）。鉴于全球人口18/26预计到2050年将增加到约97亿，到2100年将增加到112亿，预计对农业食品的需求将在59%-98%的范围内增加（Kumar等人，2020; Schmitz等人，在这种情况下，各国经济体认为通过建立全球供应网络来确保全球农业食品安全是一种理想的方式，因为全球化促进了跨境贸易交易（Cappelli和Cini，2020）。然而，这已经升级了对食品供应链中的食品质量、安全性、可负担性、安全性、可追溯性和其他可持续性问题的关注（Tsolakis等人，不幸的是，由于包括流行病在内的人为或自然逆境造成的几次中断，食品供应链非常不稳定（Zhao et al.，2020年）。COVID-19大流行的突然兴起暴露了大多数国家农业食品供应网络的脆弱性（Farrell等人，2020年）。由于封锁和关闭跨境以阻止传染性病毒的传播，这种流行病对农业食品的需求，供应和物流方面的影响是巨大的，因为不确定性开始出现（Cappelli和Cini，2020）。此外，由于劳动力短缺、产量下降、需求增加但供应减少、粮食短缺和浪费，（霍布斯，2020年; Ivanov和Dolgui，2020年）。因此，迫切需要研究农业的业绩，食品供应链在流行病爆发的过程中，并提出了应对挑战的方法。最近，新兴的数字技术，如区块链，大数据分析，物联网和人工智能，在农业食品供应链中逐渐采用，以提高其绩效（Renda，2019; Tian，2016）。鉴于这种创新在农业食品工业中仍然广泛使用不足（Lezoche等人，2020年），值得调查它们对农业食品供应链在应对流行病中断方面的影响。这项研究的重点是英国（UK），因为其人口对农业食品产品的需求增加。不幸的是，英国不生产某些农业食品，特别是在冬季（英国广播公司，2020年）。因此，大多数易腐商品都是从欧洲国家进口的（NFU，2018）。随着COVID-19疫情及其新变种导致持续封城及跨境关闭，英国农业食品行业现时及未来可能会出现食品安全、质量、安全及可追溯性问题。

Over the years, there has been an increase in the demand for agri-food products, specifically perishableagricultural products such as fresh produce, dairy products, meats, fruits and vegetables, mostly in thedeveloped countries due to the populations' understanding on the nutritional requirements of suchproducts to their health and wellbeing (Stone and Rahimifard, 2018). Given that the global population is18 / 26expected to increase to about 9.7billion by 2050 and 11.2billion by 2100, it is predicted that there wouldbe more demand for agri-foods within the range of 59%-98% (Kumar et al., 2020; Schmitz et al., 2017).In this vein, national economies consider it an ideal way to secure agri-food globally by establishingglobal supply networks, since globalisation has heightened cross-border trade deals (Cappelli and Cini,2020). However, this has escalated the concerns for food quality, safety, affordability, security,traceability and other sustainability issues in the food supply chain (Tsolakis et al., 2014).Unfortunately, food supply chain is highly volatile due to several disruptions caused by man-made ornatural adversities including epidemics (Zhao et al., 2020). The sudden rise of COVID-19 pandemic hasexposed the vulnerability of the agri-food supply networks in most countries (Farrell et al., 2020). Theimpact of this pandemic on the demand, supply and logistics aspects of agri-food is huge as uncertaintysets in owing to the lockdowns and closure of cross-borders to stop the spread of the infectious virus(Cappelli and Cini, 2020). Additionally, this pandemic has made more critical the concerns for foodsecurity, safety, affordability and quality due to labour shortages, decreased production, increaseddemand but reduced supply, food shortages and wastages (Hobbs, 2020; Ivanov and Dolgui, 2020).Thus, there is an urgent need to look into the performance of agri-food supply chains in the midst of theoutbreak of pandemics and suggest ways to address the challenges.In recent times, emerging digital technologies such as Blockchain, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Thingsand Artificial Intelligence, are gradually adopted in the agri-food supply chain to enhance its performance(Renda, 2019; Tian, 2016). Given that this innovation is still widely underused in the agri-food industry(Lezoche et al., 2020), it would be worthwhile to investigate their impacts on agri-food supply chainsperformance in dealing with the epidemics' disruptions. The key focus of this study is the United Kingdom(UK), given its population's increased demand for agri-food products. It is unfortunate that the UK doesnot produce certain agri-food products especially during the winter season (BBC, 2020). As a result, mostof the perishable goods are imported from European countries (NFU, 2018). With the on-going lockdownsand cross-border closures due to COVID-19 pandemic and its new variant, UK might experience foodsecurity, quality, safety and traceability issues in its agri-food industry both now and in the future.