Supply Chain Management and Challenges Facing the Food Industry Sector in Tanzania

The complexities of food supply chain impose enormous challenges to the processors. As compared to multinational food companies operating in the Tanzania, local firms have been performing inefficiently or going out of the business because they could hardly withstand the competition. SCM in the food industry sector was studied in a qualitative survey covered 23 food processing firms in Tanzania, with the purposes of identifying the existing supply chain operation, knowledge of SCM concept and challenges facing the sector. The findings of this study suggest that a lot of efforts need to be addressed to ensure that processors benefits from the concept of SCM. The understanding of SCM concept among the processors seems to be low, thus, hindering them from taping the opportunity offered by SCM strategies. The sector still faces a number of factors which impede the firms to grow fast and compete in the global market. Such factors include technical know-how, research and development, capital, managerial and physical infrastructures. Keywords Supply chain management; Inventory management; Customer perceived value; food industry.