POZNAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Faculty of Transport Engineering

MASTER THESIS

Author:
Redouan ELHAFIDI

MULTI-CRITERIA ANALYSIS OF CITRUS FRUIT

TRANSPORT FROM AFRICA TO EUROPE

Supervisor:
Dr Inż. Hanna SAWICKA

Poznan, June 2019

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Content

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….......
STRESZCZENIE……………………………………………………………………………..
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………....
1.1. Background…………………………………………………………………………….
1.2. The aim of the research…...............................................................................................
1.3. The content of the master thesis......................................................................................

2. TRANSPORT OF GOODS……………….………………………………………………..
2.1. General description………………………..……………………………………………
2.1.1. Road transport ..............................................................................................................
2.1.2. Maritime transport ........................................................................................................
2.1.3. Air transport .................................................................................................................
2.1.4. Rail transport ................................................................................................................
2.1.5. Multimodal transport ....................................................................................................
2.2. Selection of the best mode………………………………………………………………

3. MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS…………………………………………….

3.1. Definition………………………………………………………………………………...
3.2. Methods………………………………………………………………………………….
3.3. Description of the selected method…………………………………………………

4. DESCRIPTION OF THE DECISION PROBLEM……………………………………….

4.1. General information................................................................................................
4.2. Variants…………………………………………………………………………...
4.3. Evaluation criteria...................................................................................................
4.4. Decision maker's preferenes....................................................................................

5. COMPUTATIONAL EXPERIMENTS AND DISCUSSION…………………………….

5.1. Description..............................................................................................................
5.1.1. Calculation steps………………………………………………………………………
5.1.2. Table of the results…………………………………………………………………….
5.2. Analysis of the results..........................................................................................
5.2.1. Interpretation…………………………………………………………………………..
5.2.2. Recommendation…...…………………………………………………………………

6. CONCLUSIONS ………………………………..……………………………………………

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………….
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ABSTRACT
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STRESZCZENIE

Abstract in Polish.
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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

One of the most demanded and consumed fruit in the world has been the citrus fruit,
simultaneously its production in Morocco has been icreasing considerably in the past few years. With
the introduction of new berry varieties the sector grew and the exports to other countries are
increasing every year [1].
Morocco exports 80% of its citrus to Russia and Europe, the remaining 20% is exported to North
America and the Middle East [1].
The citrus sector in Morocco plays an important socio-economic role, it represents an essential
source of foreign currency. With an estimated value of €274 million per year, Morocco’s citrus
exports reached 500,000 tons annually [1] . Supply for export has diversified widely as production
and marketing periods have become more widespread.
Morocco’s fresh fruit and vegetables exports to Spain, in the January-September period of each
year since 2008, have grown from 153,530 tons to 321,188 tons,Which is an increase of 109% [2].
Transportation of the fresh agri-food from a country to another represents a big and often the most
important factor in the export of fresh produce as there is a huge risk of deterioration of the fresh
produce during transport, it has to be kept as cool as possible and it has to be moved to the market as
quickly as possible. Therefore there are a lot of things to consider while transporting fresh food like
the handling and storage practices.
Fast transportation with minimum damage during shipment is significant for the successful
marketing of a fresh produce, to assure that there are many different modes of transport such as air-
freighting, water ways, rail transport and road ways like open pick-ups or bigger trucks.
Transportation of the fresh produce is usually a combination of these ways especially when it comes
to the transport between two continents. As a result, there are various alternatives and different
evaluation criteria.
The determination of the best action (optimal,or compromised) constitutes a perpetual intellectual
challenge in science and engineering. The development of disciplines such as operations research,
management sciences, artificial intelligence and information systems, supported by powerful
computer tools, helps to make good decisions.
Nevertheless, nowadays, any complex decision problem often involves several points of view.
The classical approaches (utility, game theory, cost-benefit analysis, mathematical programming,
etc.) are limited to optimizing a single objective at the same time [3]. Multicriteria decision making
was then developed to offer both an approach and tools for solving complex decision-making prob-
lems. Multicriteria decision analysis is a discipline well anchored in its time. It is considered today
as one of the most important branches of operational research and decision theories that continue to
attract many researchers and practitioners[3].

Multi-criteria decision analysis is developed to deal with several classes of decision-making

problems (choice, sorting, classification, ranking, etc.) while considering several criteria (attrib-
utes) that are often conflicting and incommensurable, in order to model better the preferences and
values of the decision-maker. Its applications are diverse and varied namely, engineering (indus-
trial, civil, electrical, chemical, mining, energy, forestry and urban), environment, finance, portfolio
composition.
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Multicriteria analysis is often used in decision making. These decision support tools have been
developed since the 1960s. When the decision-maker is faced with several possible scenarios, he
defines set of criteria to judge these scenarios [3].

1.2. The aim of the research

The main aim of this research is to select the best transportation mode for exporting citrus fruit
from Morocco (Tangier ) to Spain (Barcelona). All the combinations of ways are evaluated by
different criteria such as time,distance,movement,cost and greenhouse gas emissions, and the multi-
criteria decision analysis is applied to solve the problem.

1.3. The content of the master thesis

The thesis is composed of 6 chapters, the first 3 chapters are dedicated to the theoretical part of
the research that covers the introduction to the thesis for first chapter, the methodological background
for the second chapter consisting of the modes of transportation (scenarios) and the selection of the
best mode. The third chapter is composed of a literature review on the Multiple criteria decision
analysis starting with the definition then the methods and finally the description of the selected
method.
The remaining 3 chapters are dedicated to the practical part that starts with the description of the
decision problem as the 4th chapter, the computational experiments and discussion as the 5th with
calculations and interpretation of the results and recommendations. And finally in the 6th there are
presented conclusions and further steps of the research.

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.freshplaza.com/article/2200975/morocco-citrus-exports-generating-billion-dir-
ham-yearly/
[2] https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/12/259894/morocco-largest-spains-non-eu-fruit-
andvegetables-supplier/
[3] Koksalan M, Wallenius J, Zionts S : Multiple Criteria Decision Making : From Early History to
the 21st Century. World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, 2011.