The development of science and its connection with practical activity can only occur through the continuous expansion and improvement of various areas of knowledge. Investing in knowledge is becoming the best way today to achieve success in various areas of life. Changes in the business environment at the end of the 20th century forced scientists and managers to seek new challenges for enterprises and companies that want to occupy a significant place in the market with increasing competitiveness in the new century. The very dynamics of the changes that have taken place and are taking place in enterprise management have meant that they have also covered logistics activities. For modern managers, logistics has become the field of knowledge that, as a theory and practice of activity, has enabled the search for new solutions. The directions of changes in logistics activity are determined primarily by technical innovations that enter our daily lives. They are directly related to novelties that aim to improve and make the company function more effectively in all its areas, including the area of logistics activity. Logistics has become an essential managerial knowledge that shapes the architecture of processes in an enterprise.
The interdisciplinary nature of logistics has meant that it has found its place in agribusiness. The complex nature of units and activities as well as agribusiness processes mean that logistics has begun to take on a new dimension in this area. We encounter this form of logistics every day, and many times over. Often without realizing it.
Agribusiness, most generally speaking, is all units and activities that serve to produce, process, and then deliver to the consumer every type of food. The modern scope of food production is complex. It includes unprocessed raw materials (for example, fruits, vegetables, milk), semi-finished products with varying degrees of processing (grits, half-carcasses, flours, groats, fruit and vegetable preserves, delicatessen products, catering products, and others) and many others that create specific supply chains connecting various economic entities in this industry.
The essential links in agribusiness are entities that produce means of production and provide services for agriculture, the food industry, the agriculture and fisheries sector, forestry, and others. Other links include entities from the agri-food sector along with the services provided, as well as entities that provide services for agribusiness and other branches of the national economy (science, education, construction, transport, communications, etc.). The multitude of agribusiness tasks means that logistics has a wide spectrum of tasks.
In the subject literature, there is currently no unambiguous definition of logistics. Discussions about it have been going on for many years. Researchers point to controversial divisions and artificial classifications, for example: finance logistics, cosmetology logistics, and others. In the author’s opinion, logistics should be viewed as a field of knowledge that deals with the rational flows of information, goods, and services, and, in special cases, people in logistics supply chains. Such an approach allows for classification in various areas and economic systems.
The lack of considerations regarding agrologistics does not mean that it does not exist. Logistics processes in the area of agribusiness are complicated and complex. It is an undeniable fact that modern agrologistics – in a general sense – has a dual character. Its primary task is to support (secure) the basic processes carried out for the benefit of an economic entity, an individual farm in agribusiness. On the one hand, it must be considered as logistics that has the character of logistics strongly linked to management. In this case, we can speak of agrologistics having a managerial character. On the other hand, agrologistics should be considered as support systems creating security in forces and means necessary to support basic and logistics processes. In this context, agrologistics deals with supporting the operation of the fleet with spare parts, oils, lubricants, etc. It takes on the character of technical logistics here.
The development of processing markets and then the attempt to consolidate them made it necessary to look for new solutions. This solution is agrologistics. Agrologistics – as a theory and practice – is a platform for processes supporting various forms of human activity. It constitutes a branch of knowledge dealing with the rational management of logistics processes, and in a deeper sense, the logistics chain. It exposes the need to overcome the time and space barrier by creating logistics processes. Agrologistics pays special attention to improving the organization of supply, warehousing and transport processes, distribution, and the provision of logistics services in relation to the sources where specific logistics resources are obtained, by increasing value added, moving goods and services to potential recipients in the so-called “agro-logistics chain”.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 3/2011.