Resilience strategies in coping to disruptions of wheat supply chain caused by the Russia–Ukraine war crisis: case study from an emerging economy

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The Russia–Ukraine war has disrupted the wheat supply worldwide. Given that wheat is one of the most important agri-food products in the world, it is necessary to pay attention to the wheat supply chain during the global crises. The use of resilience strategies is one of the solutions to face the supply chain disruptions. In addition, there is a possibility of multiple crises occurring in global societies simultaneously. Design/methodology/approach: In this research, the resilience strategies of backup suppliers (BS) and inventory pre-prepositioning (IP) were discussed in order to cope with the wheat supply chain disruptions. Furthermore, the p-Robust Scenario-based Stochastic Programming (PRSSP) approach was used to optimize the wheat supply chain under conditions of disruptions from two perspectives, feasibility and optimality. Findings: After implementing the problem of a real case in Iran, the results showed that the use of resilience strategy reduced costs by 9.33%. It was also found that if resilience strategies were used, system's flexibility and decision-making power increased. Besides, the results indicated that if resilience strategies were used and another crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, supply chain costs would increase less than when resilience strategies were not used. Originality/value In this study, the design of the wheat supply chain was discussed according to the wheat supply disruptions due to the Russia–Ukraine war and its implementation on a real case. In the following, various resilience strategies were used to cope with the wheat supply chain disruptions. Finally, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the wheat supply chain in the conditions of disruptions caused by the Russia–Ukraine war was investigated. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.