Social-economic and environmental sustainability of short supply chains: opportunities for development rural territories

The paper substantiates the expediency of developing short supply chains at the local level. The focus of this paper is to determine opportunities for developing rural territories in Ukraine on the basis of the development of short supply chains in terms of ensuring social, economic and environmental sustainability. It is established that such an approach provides stability of development of rural territory, in particular, it promotes: social interaction (trust, justice, solidarity and common values between consumers and producers), community development (just relationships, pride, social cohesion and community affiliation, strengthening local culture and identity), health and well-being of the population (healthy diet); access to healthy food, health improvement), which ensures social sustainability of the system; rural development and economic recovery (increase of workplaces, tourism development, increase of local incomes, development of small and medium-sized farms), achievement of economic benefits to farms (reduction of overheads, fixed margin and premium for quality, increase of competitiveness and economic viability, sustainable use resources), which ensures economic stability of the system; reducing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions (reducing transport and storage time; using alternative technologies; maximizing manual labor; reducing the use of plastic packaging; reducing food losses); sustainability of agro-systems (promoting agro-biodiversity; using local varieties; highlighting ecological and organic production), which ensures the ecological stability of the system.