What have been the major causes of uncertainty impacting on your value chain in the last 5 years, and then assess whether you think they have dealt adequately with that uncertainty.

Tutorial questions for value chain lectures 1 and 2

Consider a particular food or agricultural product value chain that you know something about or have an interest in (this could be the same industry or product that you do your assignment on).
Who are the key actors in this value chain?And how would you classify the competitive conditions at each part of the chain? For example, how many producers, processors, retailers and what is the relative size of each of these firms? What is the nature of the relationships between them? For example, are sales by contract or auction?
Of the three main reasons for value chain formation, which one do you think is the main one for your value chain? And where do you think the pressure to implement a formal value chain came from? Was it one of the firms in the chain wanting to do things better, or was it because of consumer demand?
Related to question 2, review the concepts of pricing efficiency and operational efficiency, and make a judgement about whether the balance between them has changed because of the existence of the value chain.
What have been the major causes of uncertainty impacting on your value chain in the last 5 years, and then assess whether you think they have dealt adequately with that uncertainty.