ResearchResearch OrganisationsCentre for Regional Economies and Supply Chain (CRESC)

Supply, Value and Block Chains

Agri-food supply and value chains are important for regional Australia's economy since Australia produces a variety of agri-food products, such as meats, seafood, grains, legumes, and horticulture products, which are distributed to domestic and international markets. Understanding the structure and processes of supply chains offers stakeholders such as producers, industry associations, and the government the opportunity to identify issues and opportunities linked to the distribution network of agri-food products. The Supply, Value and Block Chains research cluster helps to create new knowledge, synergies and direction of food systems supply chains in relationship building, value creation, risks identification and measuring inefficiencies. Moreover, this cluster will offer in-depth research, innovation, and development in supply chain collaboration at both horizontal and vertical enterprise levels as well as across the state, national and international dimensions.

Key areas of research and activities include:

  • Agricultural supply and value chain
  • Resilient supply chain management
  • Global value chain design and optimisation
  • Transport, freight, and logistics services
  • Block chains, AI and traceability
  • Supply chain policy development

Key capabilities include:

  • Supply chain collaboration modelling
  • Supply chains input and output models
  • Agri-food value chain analysis
  • Transport, logistics and service optimization analysis
  • Decision support system development

Research Projects

FinTechs: Friends or Foes? Perspectives of Australian accountants and financial advisers

Lead Chief Investigator - Dr Tasadduq Imam

Enhancing Foodbank's Stakeholder Engagement

Lead Chief Investigator - Dr Upamali Amarakoon

Supply chain and market incentives for water quality

Lead Chief Investigator - Professor John Rolfe 

Cluster leader

Delwar Akbar standing in front of a brick wall smiling

Associate Professor Delwar Akbar - Director, CRESC

Associate Professor Delwar Akbar is a regional economist and research leader in supply and value chain research, who has been working with rural and regional industries and businesses to improve their productivity and sustainability. His research during the last decade has focused predominantly on rural and regional economics, value chain analysis, property and health economics, economic impact assessment and regional development. Along with other researchers, he has received significant levels of funding support (approx. $5.5 million) through Category 1-4 grants. He has integrated economic models with supply chain, services and planning models. Recently, he has been developing and testing collaborative business models that could bolster rural economic dynamics and international trade. Over his academic career, he has been involved with more than 60 research and consultancy projects and published over 110 refereed papers and project reports.