Pizza's Global Footprint
	Pizza has gone global, and it is governed by a heavy commitment to contemporary logistics.
In India, one pizzeria manager, Pavan Bhatia, describes his Pizza Corner Domino Pizza store as "more a logistics company than food service, since supply chain management is the factor that differentiates the winners from the losers" in this business. Bhatia's Pizza Corner store in New Delhi gets its potatoes from Canada, where it is shipped to ports in Mumbai and Delhi. Pizza Corner pepperoni comes from Australia, and jalapeno requirements are fulfilled from Spain. Cheese is sourced closer to home--from Bangalore. Pizza may be an Italian cuisine, but it is the last word in global supply chains. The hungry citizens of the United States eat 350 slices of pizza a second, or 400 acres (17.4 million square feet) per day. Don't even think of the geographical scale of a year's pizza! As an industry in the U.S., pizza tops $30 billion. The country's 69,000 pizzerias make up 17% of all restaurants. The nation eats 3 billion pizzas in a year--that's pies, not slices; 93% of Americans eat at least one pizza per month. That's 23 pounds (including the toppings) of pizza a year. Americans' favorite topping is pepperoni (36% of all orders), and that means a lot of sausage must be transported. Other favorite toppings are mushrooms, extra cheese, green peppers and, of course, onions. On the other hand, specialty or gourmet toppings are becoming popular regionally in the U.S. Some pies come with shrimp, chicken, artichoke hearts, eggplant, sprouts, crayfish--even duck and Canadian bacon. Mozzarella cheese accounts for 30% of all pizza cheese, but other favorites include provolone, ricotta, parmesan and romano. The amount of cheese used runs into the hundreds of millions of pounds. External Source - For the complete article click here Source - Forbes