Context:

The problem of locating facilities in supply chains of perishable agricultural products has not been widely addressed, however, this issue in recent years has taken great interest because of concerns about the consumption of fresh and healthy food, important aspect in countries with fruits food producer potential.

Method:

A systematic review of the state of the art on facility location problems for perishable agricultural products was conducted. The following databases were searched: Science Direct, IEEE Xplore, SpringerLink, JSTOR, Scopus and Google Scholar. From an initial collection of 135 papers obtained with a generic search query for food location, 31 were finally selected for review focusing on food supply chain location model, within a publication date ranging from 2004 to 2015.

Results:

Based on the review, a typology of variables considered and not considered in models pertinent to conditions relevant to countries such as Colombia, is proposed. Objective functions commonly used, specific restrictions for Food Supply Chain (FSC) and logistical drivers most commonly considered in these models were also identified. Future research, regarding variables to be included in FSC models location for perishables in context of mountainous countries were identified.

Conclusions:

Strategic decisions such as the location of facilities are of great importance for the design of the fresh food supply chain and its network, given the perishability. However, the issue has been poorly evaluated especially due to the difficulty of modeling and the large number of variables to consider in this type of chain. Models that include the perishability, losses and stochastic behavior of some variables are required. Colombia can benefit from more research in location models of perishable food, particularly the impact on perishability due to its particular conditions of great variety of climates, mountainous landscapes along with a limited transport and road infrastructure.

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