The term “Supply Chain Management” (SCM) first appeared in the literature in the early 1980s. Since then SCM concepts have captured significant attention from academics and practitioners in the field [1]. In the current competitive business environment, SCM has become an important for all industries due to the increased focus on overall revenue growth and performance [2]. Supply chains are complex in nature as many partners such as producers, processors, marketers and distributors are generally involved. Increasing the number of partners along the supply chain would increase its length as well as its complexity, which ultimately reduce the efficiency. Traditionally SCM principles were mainly implemented in manufacturing sector due to the complexity of both in-bound and out-bound logistical operations. Meanwhile, Salin showed that the application of SCM practices in agricultural sector was also vital mainly due to increased awareness of issues of food quality, food safety and ethical concepts [3]. Due this fact, many food supply chains have also gone through significant structural changes over the last three decades. A Traditional Fresh Vegetable Supply Chain (FVSC) involves in moving vegetables from farmers to consumers through many middlemen, which result in inefficiencies and quality issues along the supply chain. As a result, large-scale retailers such as supermarkets have taken initiations to purchase directly from the farmers to minimise the inefficiencies and costs as well as to maintain the quality of vegetables. Therefore, this research focuses on how supply chain structure affects their performance. Further, the relationship between supply chain length (number of intermediaries) and its performance level is analysed.

Piyumali, J.R.A., & Jayaratne, P. (2016). Evaluation of fresh vegetable supply chain structure and its performance [Extended Abstract]. In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2016 (pp. 135-138). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2016/