Resilient food cold-chain logistics in resource-constrained tropical economies: a systematic literature review

This paper constructs a systematic literature review of food cold-chain logistics with the focus on resilient and sustainable performance in the conditions of resource-constrained tropical environments. The review is a response to a longstanding logistics issue in perishable food systems: products can be physically present but economically or nutritionally inaccessible due to failure of temperature control, routing, storage, data visibility, and inter-organizational coordination at some critical points in the chain. In accordance with the PRISMA 2020 logic and evidence-synthesis recommendations, a protocol-based web search of peer-reviewed journal literature published between 2010 and February 2026 was carried out on major scholarly publisher platforms, journal portals, and citation chaining pathways. The design is based on the recent thematic review models in the field of food cold-chain logistics and agri-food resilience. 50 articles met the criteria and sampled for the study. The study lists five common capability domains, which are infrastructure and energy reliability, visibility, traceability, and intelligent monitoring, network design, routing, and inventory orchestration, collaboration, governance, and capability orchestration, and sustainable resilience outcomes and trade-offs. The study concluded that digital monitoring in itself is unlikely to enhance cold-chain performance unless it is supplemented with reliable energy, explicit response policies, and shared decision authority. Also, the literature is also too focused on technology adoption and optimization models and under-focused on finance, institutional support, and last-mile service in fragmented markets. It is recommended that the focused should be shifted from this areas. This paper is valuable in that it incorporates dynamic capabilities, socio-technical systems thinking, and supply chain resilience into a conceptual framework of capabilities to resilient food cold-chain logistics.