Life cycle cost and support opportunities in the supply chain: a case study of Greek peach cooperatives Aris Matopoulos, Vicky Manthou, Maro Vlachopoulou Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia st. 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece. Abstract Supply chain management aims at maximizing profit through enhanced competitiveness in the final market, which is achieved by a lower cost to serve in the shortest time possible. Those goals can be attained if the supply chain as a whole is efficiently coordinated, minimizing total channel inventory, eliminating bottlenecks, compressing time frames and abolishing quality problems. The paper reviews the changes taking place in the fresh produce sector globally and identifies the importance of supply chain management for Greek agricultural cooperatives. The case study focuses on three companies: one of the biggest U.K. wholesalers and two Greek cooperatives, with the aim of identifying opportunities to remove cost and add value in a number of activities in the peach supply chain. This is achieved by reviewing the current situation of the two Greek peach cooperatives, which at the moment are exporting in the UK market, and by reviewing their activities. Opportunities to remove cost and add value have been identified in activities such as: input purchase, inventory management, packaging-labeling, order-delivery process, new product development and customer portfolio management. Close collaboration in the fresh produce supply chain, is seen as the way forward for all the parts in the supply chain although benefits may not equally split among the members of the supply chain. Keywords: Fresh produce sector, supply chain management, supply chain activities, Greek agricultural cooperatives. 1. Introduction The last few years, changes are taking place in the European food industry sector creating this way a new business era for agriculture. The notion that competition no longer stands as company vs. company but rather as chain vs. chain (Van Hoek, 1998), is increasingly becoming reality in the food industry sector influencing also the agricultural sector. Nitchke and OKeefe (1997), suggest that competition in the agricultural sector has really changed and it is the system of growers-packers-exporters of a country that competes against the business systems of another country. That is why the Supply Chain Management (SCM) approach has been recognized as need for the food industry (Hughes, 1994). Where the interest lies for Greek cooperatives is to