Measuring the sustainability of beef supply chain with rapid appraisal for beef supply chain

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Nationally, there has always been a gap between the demand for beef and its supply, although supply growth is proportional with demand growth and even exceeds it in some regions in Indonesia. This research study aims to measure the sustainability status of the beef supply chain and applies the developed measurement system to a specific beef supply chain by identifying suitable indicators and their scale. Moreover, this research study provides some recommendations for the improvement of the sustainability status of the beef supply chain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this research study, 11 and nine indicators were analyzed to assess the sustainability status of the beef supply chain at the farm and slaughterhouse chain levels. A rapid appraisal for beef supply chain was applied to rapidly assess the sustainability status of beef supply chains using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). The Delphi method was utilized as an iterative process to collect data and obtain consensus of experts’ judgments regarding the policies that should be implemented to improve the most sensitive indicator affecting the economic, social, and environmental dimensions. RESULTS: Analysis of ordination with MDS shows the regional sustainability index value for multidimensional approaches of beef cattle farms and beef slaughterhouses. The sustainability index value for beef cattle farms was 56.14 (moderately sustainable), 48.02 (fairly unsustainable), and 48.77 (fairly unsustainable) in Semarang, Sragen, and Boyolali, respectively. Moreover, the sustainability index value for beef slaughterhouses was 47.05 (fairly unsustainable), 54.83 (moderately sustainable), and 54.19 (moderately sustainable) in Semarang, Sragen, and Boyolali, respectively. Policy recommendation was focused on the basis of the results of leverage analysis, which highlighted the most indicative factor affecting sustainability for each dimension. CONCLUSION: Measurement results revealed that the achievement of beef supply chain sustainability requires targeted efforts through the deployment of several policies as the current status of sustainability in beef farms and beef slaughterhouses was only inclined toward moderately sustainable and fairly unsustainable. Although all the surveyed regions in this study can meet the regional needs of beef meat on their own and even distribute the excess to other regions, none of the beef supply chains of the surveyed region indicated good sustainability.