Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, Global Executive Lead Development & Sustainability, at MHA plc stated:
In Part 1 – Why South East Europe Is a key centre of food logistics, I argued that the economics of food are changing. Lowest cost still matters, but resilience, proximity and reliability increasingly have a value of their own. For me, this is where South East Europe becomes particularly interesting. Corridors IV and X connect the Balkans with Central Europe, while Piraeus and Constanța provide important maritime gateways.
The opportunity is not simply to move food more quickly. It is to create more choices when established supply routes are disrupted. Climate adds another dimension. Higher temperatures put greater pressure on storage, refrigeration and transport. Low water levels can restrict freight routes. Conflict can disrupt shipping with little warning. What looked resilient on paper can become vulnerable remarkably quickly.
This makes cold-chain capacity, processing, energy resilience and better connections between road, rail and sea increasingly important. Not because they remove risk, but because they give businesses options. And that, for me, is the point. Food businesses cannot look at geography purely through the lens of lowest production cost. They also need to consider availability, waste, logistics, climate exposure and the cost of disruption.
So the question becomes a fairly simple one:
Where can we produce, process and move food reliably when conditions change?
South East Europe will not solve every supply-chain problem. But its location, infrastructure and proximity to major European markets mean it deserves much greater attention. In the new geography of food, resilience has a value too.
