What We Do
CURRENT RESEARCH
The Global 78 team is currently researching food supply system resilience in the cross-border trading and regulatory environments of the post Brexit world. It recognises any subsequent adjustments from governmental initiatives, as well as from continuing global or regional uncertainty.
Importantly, the research programme is independent, impartial, and politically neutral. Findings from this industry-funded three-year programme (from 2024 to 2026) will benefit strategy development for multiple stakeholder categories across both business and government.
Research concentrates on the United Kingdom and Ireland and their respective supply markets. The two complementary tracks examine food supply systems overall plus a ‘deep dive’ into fresh produce specifics. Focus is on time-critical temperature-controlled food supply networks that use RoRo ferry services.
BACKGROUND
Brexit launched an era of new trading relationships between the United Kingdom and EU countries, with significant impacts and issues – many of them unexpected or not properly understood – for food supply networks that connect with the United Kingdom, Ireland, or the countries of continental Europe. And recent geopolitical and environmental factors have heightened some of the challenges.
Food supply systems – even domestic ones – are inherently complex. Further, the information required by businesses to plan and execute strategies for logistics resilience is often fragmented or inaccessible. This is never more so than when addressing trade and fiscal policy changes.
Food supply imperatives include responsible sourcing, authenticity, food safety, and adequate shelf life. Supply chains require multiple handoffs of product or information. System integrity can be challenged by war, pandemics, seismic events, geopolitical tensions, economic and social pressures, security issues, water shortage, crop failures, extreme weather, and climate change. Technology can give events rapid and wide impact.
Evidence gathering involves public domain literature search, analysis of official statistics and reports, and review of conference papers, company annual reports, and marketing material. This is supplemented by interviews and site visits to “walk the process” wherever possible, ensuring that data analysis results retain a firm grasp on operational reality.
