Development strategy in the field of transport of perishable food products based on the SWOT analysis

A rise in international trade has increased the need for the transportation of perishable products from producers to end-users in distant locations. Such transportation requires extensive logistics planning to ensure the integrity of the goods transported. The article aims to identify and highlight key strengths and weaknesses of the company, and to identify opportunities and threats that can contribute to improving the competitiveness and thus the quality of services provided. The scope of the data included domestic and international transport of two product groups: food and agricultural products. Data were obtained from Eurostat and the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) for the years 2010–2015. In order to determine the strategy and enterprise that specializes in the transport of food products, a SWOT analysis was used. The SWOT analysis points clearly to the direction of the business’s development towards strong expansion in the market which is demonstrated by the high figures for the strengths and opportunities (9.48). Compared with 2014, 2015 saw a 14.2% increase in the proportion of foods with a parallel drop in the transport of domestic agricultural produce by nearly 5%. The volume of road transport expressed in tonne/kilometre was 14.5% of the total of EU transport which places Poland second amongst the 28 EU states, after Germany and before Spain and France. The paper demonstrates that the most advantageous development strategy for a domestic transport provider is anaggressive (maxi–maxi) strategy to fully benefit from the opportunities with the use of its strengths.