Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2018 257 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Factors leading to supply chain inefficiency in agribusiness: evidence from Asia’s largest wholesale market Saurav Negi* University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India Email: snegi@ddn.upes.ac.in *Corresponding author Neeraj Anand School of Business, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India Email: nanand@ddn.upes.ac.in Abstract: This article examines the factors and most significant variable leading to supply chain inefficiency with respect to high cost, high lead time and poor quality at the wholesale stage of tomato supply chain in India. The primary data were collected through a survey using questionnaire with the total of 120 tomato wholesalers (commission agents) at the wholesale market. The study was conducted at Asia’s largest wholesale fruits and vegetable market (Mandi) in Azadpur, Delhi. Factor analysis was carried out to identify the factors. Based on the analysis, four factors were identified for high cost, namely, labour charges, operational, resources, and infrastructure; five factors were identified for high lead time, namely, operational, labour, resources, and infrastructure; and five factors were identified for poor quality, namely, operational, infrastructure, ambience, labour, and information. The findings show that labour charges and operational factors are the most significant factors leading to supply chain inefficiency. Keywords: supply chain inefficiency; wholesale market; food supply chain; tomato supply chain; food losses and wastages. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Negi, S. and Anand, N. (2018) ‘Factors leading to supply chain inefficiency in agribusiness: evidence from Asia’s largest wholesale market’, Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp.257–288. Biographical notes: Saurav Negi is working with University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun. He earned his Bachelor’s in Marketing and Master’s of Business Administration in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. He is currently working on fresh agro (fruits and vegetables) supply chain. He has published research papers in national and international journals of repute, chapters in edited book, etc. and also participated and presented papers in various international and national conferences in institutes like IIM Raipur, IIM Shillong to name a few. His areas of interest are agro supply chain, logistics and supply chain management of food, cold chain management, etc.