[#220] Supply Chain in Numbers - Feb 26, 2024
Saudi to export 12T of veggies per day, Aizon raises $20M, Atlanta has 3 out of 10 worst truck bottlenecks, Pork industry has oversupply problem, Purchasing Manager has the highest median salary
Welcome to “Supply Chain in Numbers.” This newsletter tracks significant digits from the world of the supply chain. Five prominent numbers are published every Monday. If you have any feedback, please send it to me.
12 tonnes per day
In February 2024, fresh produce from Saudi Arabia was exported to Europe for the first time by a high-tech greenhouse and vertical farming company called Dava Agricultural Co. Their project covers 107 hectares in Saudi, to reach a daily production capacity of 165 tonnes by 2024. It is planned that 12 tonnes per day of fresh vegetables will be exported to the European market in 2025 for four months, totaling 1,500 tonnes for 2025. Dava currently produces and markets vine tomatoes, beef tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs, strawberries, and mushrooms. [Fresh Plaza]
$20M in Series C
Aizon, a San Francisco, CA-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) SaaS AI-enhanced pharmaceutical manufacturing company, raised $20M in Series C funding. Aizon leverages advanced predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and other smart factory technologies to provide an accessible GMP AI platform for pharmaceutical manufacturers. With Aizon, customers can access to insights and enhanced decision-making capabilities and can discover new optimization paths, reduce costs, predict deviations, and enhance their manufacturing systems. The system prioritizes rigorous quality and compliance and follows GAMP5 for GMP processes to ensure compliant data acquisition, storage, and consumption. [Fin SMEs]
3 out of 10 are in Atlanta
The Perimeter in Atlanta, Interstate 285, is home to three of the top 10 worst trucking bottlenecks in the U.S. Fort Lee, New Jersey, where traffic often backs up at the George Washington Bridge into New York, held onto its crown as the most significant pain point for truckers for the sixth straight year. But Atlanta edged out Chicago and Houston for the most bottlenecks in one central metropolitan area. The average rush hour truck speed in the ten worst areas was 28.5 mph, dropped nearly 4% from the previous year to 34.4 mph. [Trucking Dive]
Demand down 9%, Supply is up 25%
The supply and demand problems in the American pork industry are only worsening. The sector’s giant processors and the farmers who supply them have made production so efficient that they’ve outpaced demand. U.S. demand for pork is down 9% over the past 20 years but farmers produce 25% more pork than they did two decades ago. The resulting glut has pinched U.S. pork producers’ profit margins. Major processors like Tyson Foods lost millions of dollars on pork operations last year. [WSJ]
$131,350 for a Purchasing Manager
If you want to maximize your supply chain earnings, become a purchasing manager. Purchasing managers had the highest median salary of the jobs studied, at a $131,350 average. The overall median salary was $90,812. Logisticians have a 10-year projected growth rate of 18%, and the highest salaries can be found in New Jersey, New York, and Washington. Thirteen different job functions were examined. The most popular supply chain job is that of general/operations manager. The lowest-paying positions were production/planning/expediting clerk ($50,630), quality control analyst ($50,290), and procurement clerk ($45,240). [SCMR]