The resilience factors of the agri-food supply chain: An integrative review of the literature in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: During the COVID-19 global pandemic, a very significant change has occurred in the demand for basic goods, resulting from the change in the consumer needs of the population in light of a large-scale health and economic crisis. This has revealed the true importance that the agri-food supply chains (ASC) have in the design of business strategies, especially at exceptional times, when the logistics process must be robust enough to continue to ensure the supply of products. In this context, the article presents a qualitative review of the academic literature, with the aim of extracting those factors that have the greatest influence on the degree of resilience of the ASC.Design/methodology: The methodology used is the integrative review of scientific publications, with a closer focus on those specialized in the supply chain, in order to perform a critical analysis and demonstrate theory based on the existing evidence. Both the document search and the content analysis abide by rigorous, explicit criteria.Findings: The bibliographic analysis reveals that there are at least three business strategies that can be considered critical factors in the degree of resilience of the ASCs. These three strategies are: a customer-oriented business awareness; distribution models based on proximity; and cooperative practices among the factors that make up the value chains.Originality/value: In such an important historical moment as the Coronavirus pandemic, it is very appropriate to look back in order to analyze all the scientific literature that could help us to better understand the current situation. It is even more important to do so in those areas of knowledge that do not yet have a consolidated academic trajectory, such as in the case of the resilience of supply chains.