The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) is part of the Engineering Systems Division in the School of Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.   For more than five decades, MIT CTL has been a world leader in supply chain management education and research. MIT CTL has made significant contributions to supply chain and logistics and has helped numerous companies gain competitive advantage from its cutting-edge research.  Visit our website to learn more about our educational offerings, research initiatives, and outreach opportunities! https://ctl.mit.edu/  

MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics

New Row

Contact expert @[Full Name](fullname), @[Job Title](job_title) at @[Organization](organization) for media, speaking, professional opportunities and more.

@[Full Name](fullname) at @[Organization](organization) | Contact Form

Expert Inquiry

Open Sans

Issued by INFORMS Contemporary Operations management for Developing Countries (CODE) 
2025

Winning Paper

Issued by Industrial Engineering and Operations Management Society
2025

Outstanding Researcher Award

MIT Emerging Market Economies Logistics Lab (EMeL) : Founder and Director

MIT Graduate Certificate in Logistics and SCM (GCLOG) program : Director

MIT Global SCALE Network : Director

 MIT SCALE Network for Latin America and the Caribbean : Director

Resilient Supply Chains Amid Uncertainty: Do Agility, Adaptability, and Alignment Mitigate the Effects of Major Disruptions?

Tax privacy concerns hamper digitization of the nanostore channel

An in-depth metaheuristic approach to design a sustainable closed-loop agri-food supply chain network

Mapping research in logistics and supply chain management during COVID-19 pandemic

Emerging markets play an essential role in global supply chains, providing much of the food, raw materials, and labor that keep the world running. But they also face unique challenges: fragmented systems, limited infrastructure, and volatile economies. At the same time, these regions hold immense potential for innovation, resilience, and growth if their logistics systems can adapt to meet rising pressures from climate change, geopolitical shocks, and shifting consumer demands.
In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Chris Mejía, Founder and Director of the MIT Emerging Market Economies Logistics Lab (EMeL), along with Research Affiliates Dr. Edgar Gutierrez and Isabel Agudelo. They discuss the launch of this new lab at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, its mission to strengthen supply chains across the Global South, and the human decisions that ultimately shape logistics outcomes. From the fate of mangoes in Ghana to cobalt in the Congo, the conversation reveals why emerging markets matter to everyone—and how building trust may be the biggest logistics challenge of all.

What Coffee, Cobalt, and Mangoes Have in Common: Introducing the Emerging Market Economies Logistics Lab

Millions of small, family operated nanostores are the main source of consumer packaged goods in many neighborhoods of large cities across the developing world. In many of these countries, well over half of consumer goods are sold via the nanostore channel. Understanding this channel is critical for anyone selling or intending to sell into these large and fast growing markets. Tackling the logistics complexities of serving millions of nanostores is a challenge that many face, yet few master. In this book, we discuss logistics distribution and commercial route-to-market concepts for this channel and present best practices from Latin America, Asia, and North Africa. The book serves to inspire managers in marketing, sales, supply chain, distribution, logistics, and general management to develop their understanding and their business success in these growing markets. This book includes a unique set of case studies focusing on companies that have successfully created forward-looking approaches to retail operations over the world. The case studies included provide readers with a range of best practices, useful insights, and commercial and logistics strategies for serving diverse distribution channels. The authors (with extensive experience within these markets) and editors (from premier research institutions in Europe and the US) have done extensive field research over multiple years to develop the insights that are shared in this book. With the growth of convenience stores in the developed world, the insights also serve as an inspiration for those in Europe and North America that are confronted with a rapid proliferation of retail outlets as proximity shopping is becoming the norm. In the final chapter, the editors reflect on recent developments, particularly in China, where electronic commerce and nanostores are partnering to become a strong rival for the organized retail channel. "As the world population tends to concentrate more and more in urban environments, the two fastest growing channels for consumer goods distribution are online sales and convenient, proximal nanostores. Remarkably, this trend applies to both the most and the least developed economies. This book is a valuable resource that covers the realities and the challenges of serving nanostores, a subject much less widely covered than the "sexier" online e-commerce channel, but equally important for understanding the evolution of the world's fast moving consumer goods markets." - Sergio Barbarino, P&G Research Fellow and Chairman of The European Technology Platform for Logistic Innovation, ALICE

Reaching 50 Million Nanostores

This edited book presents 18 papers on Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Latin America which emerged from the second SCALE Latin American Conference in 2018. The collection covers a variety of relevant topics in SCM&L for the region, and also addresses its lack of cases and applied examples.

Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Emerging Markets

Latin America is a fast-growing market, but its poor infrastructure, explosive urbanization, expensive and inefficient logistics, and multiple social problems continue to pose major problems to logistics professionals and academics. Here leading scholars across Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and the USA address these issues.

Supply Chain Management and Logistics in Latin America

Future Logistics & Infrastructure Systems

Sustainable & Circular Supply Chains

Critical Systems & Supply Network Resilience

Chris Mejía Argueta is a Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics with 20 years of experience delivering applied research in 20+ countries. His work helps organizations turn complex supply chain challenges into practical strategies that improve competitiveness, efficiency, and flexibility.

At MIT’s Emerging Market Economies Logistics Lab (EMeL), formerly the Food and Retail Operations Lab, Dr. Mejía has led dozens of projects with companies in multiple sectors. His research spans last-mile and retail operations, agri-food supply chains, first-mile mapping and optimization for minerals, energy and fibers, and global transportation strategies. He designs route-to-market and logistics models that connect changing consumer behavior with evolving retail landscapes, optimize last-mile operations, and strengthen Global South–Global North links through transportation and infrastructure.

A central theme of his work is creating competitive advantage while addressing socioeconomic challenges, including income disparity, food insecurity and malnutrition, food waste, and limited access to markets through sustainable policies, business models, and logistics solutions that reach vulnerable populations.

Dr. Mejía is Director of the MIT Global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network, with centers in the U.S., Spain, Colombia, the U.K., and China. He also leads the MIT SCALE Network for Latin America and the Caribbean, connecting 50+ academic and corporate partners to develop impactful research and education initiatives with companies, governments, universities, and society. He is Director of MIT’s Graduate Certificate in Logistics and Supply Chain Management (GCLOG), an elite program for professionals from emerging market economies.

He holds an M.Sc. and PhD in Industrial Engineering from Monterrey Tech, Mexico, both earned summa cum laude (top 1% of each graduating class). He is author and editor of five books, including Reaching 50 Million Nanostores: Retail Distribution in Emerging Megacities (2017), the first book to combine theory and real-world cases on logistics, distribution, and business strategies for micro- and informal retailers in emerging markets.

Dr. Mejía is Associate Editor of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences (Elsevier), serves on the INFORMS steering committee for Contemporary Operations for Developing Economies (CODE), and was President of the POMS Latin America and Caribbean chapter (2022–2024).

Agrifood Supply Chains

Retail Operations

Last-Mile Delivery

Global Transportation

Interdisciplinary Research

Mixed Methods

Operations Research and Statistics

Emerging Market Economies

Spanish

French

English

MIT CTL Profile

MIT Profile

Google Scholar

Socio-Economic Planning Sciences Editorial Board

ORCID

From rules of origin to rules of resilience

Iran War Impact: How Bad Can it Get?

‘Domino Effect’: Supply Chain Expert Explains Pending Upheaval to US Meat Processing

What Coffee, Cobalt, and Mangoes Have in Common

Food for thought, thought for food

Ripple effects from Russia-Ukraine war test global economies

United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Elite Flower Group

Organizacion Corona

LOGYCA

Global Foodbanking Network

Optimizing the Global Workforce Capacity and Capability at Hewlett-Packard

Thought leadership from MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.

MIT Supply Chain Frontiers

Director, MIT SCALE Network for Latin America and the Caribbean | Director, MIT Graduate Certificate in Logistics and SCM (GCLOG) program | Founder & Director, MIT Emerging Market Economies Logistics Lab (EMeL) | Research Scientist

Christopher Mejía Argueta
Research Scientist, MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics

Read the full story here: https://ilp.mit.edu/read/ChristopherArgueta

See the full playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJvJ-6UyehQCl4Aw4PlPL141DgENereS6

Christopher Mejía Argueta - Introduction to Agribusiness Supply Chains - 1 of 5

Christopher Argueta - The Impact of Nano Stores on Underserved Communities - 2 of 5

2025 INFORMS CODE Webinar; Panel w Marcelo Olivares and Christopher Mejia Argueta

Impactful OM Research in Latin America

Select Inquiry Type