Investigating the organic agricultural products supply chain in Iran

The present study aimed to investigate the organic agricultural products supply chain in Iran and provide a processes maturity framework for this chain based on the Iranian Standard of the organic products. Accordingly, the model, proposed in this research, provides an improvement tool that addresses the integration of company's internal processes at low levels, and the integration of the processes with external partners at higher levels of maturity given the definition of maturity levels. The model can also be used as a roadmap for improving supply chain processes. This roadmap identifies both strengths and opportunities for improvement in the organic agricultural products supply chain. The model presented in this study includes the main components of all maturity models namely the maturity levels definition based on the five-level structure, the corresponding questionnaire (validated by the CVI index), by which, it is possible to evaluate the status quo of the supply chain, and a roadmap for the processes needing improvement including several improvements practices obtained in consultation with experts. According to the results of implementing the proposed maturity model on two sub-chains of organic agricultural products, because achieving the lowest score, two processes of customer relationship management and customer service management need the most attention and improvement, which is in line with theoretical results. Finally, improvement practices were proposed and ranked by ANP method for each of these processes that can be used as an action plan by managers and practitioners in this field.