Fresh Supply Chain Research Articles

Optimization Analysis of Smart Energy Systems in the Fresh Supply Chain Based on Differential Games

The energy issue has gradually become a major focus of strategic competition among major nations in the contemporary world. Achieving a balance between energy, cost, and ecology is crucial, particularly in specific contexts. As one of the critical factors influencing global climate, carbon emissions have consistently been a green indicator of concern for countries worldwide. This paper addresses optimizing energy costs in the cold chain transportation of the fresh supply chain to obtain a model with low carbon emissions and transportation costs. Initially, the paper explores the equilibrium between energy and cost optimization using the theoretical framework of differential games in game theory. Building upon this, an intelligent energy system is proposed, and a basic model for constructing a smart grid is provided based on commonly used electric power. Using this as the foundational concept, a game model is constructed, considering the conflicting objectives of cost minimization, time efficiency, and energy conservation in addressing the primary issue of energy savings in the fresh supply chain, specifically the transportation path optimization problem. Compared to traditional models, the model presented in this paper reduces the scheduling of two refrigerated trucks. By optimizing this model, the transportation path's length is shortened by 5.50%, the carbon emission is decreased by 8.9%, and the model's overall cost is reduced by 4.94%. This study presents a game model that may efficiently optimize the fresh product transportation chain, reducing carbon emissions and expenses. The model has certain practical applications and serves as a guide.

Research on Coordination of Fresh Supply Chain Considering Supplier Misreporting and Consumer Return

Misreporting is prevalent in supply chain characterized by asymmetric information, and its impact on the supply chain is substantial and cannot be overlooked. In order to explore the impact of fresh supplier’s misreporting decisions on fresh supply chain, this paper takes the fresh supply chain with a single fresh supplier and a single e-commerce enterprise as the research object, and constructs five Stackelberg game models based on the differences of supply chain information transparency and power structure. Particularly, the effect of fresh-keeping level on the after-sales rate and market demand of the product is incorporated into the model, and the following conclusions are drawn by solving and analyzing the decision results of the different models: (1) When the supplier has the decision advantage, it will not choose to misreport. But when it loses the decision advantage, it will produce the misreporting behavior. Supplier misreporting is detrimental to the retailer and the supply chain; specifically, it can lead to lower fresh-keeping level and higher after-sales rates. (2) In the decentralized decision-making model, it is more beneficial for the supply chain that the supplier has the leading right of decision-making. In the absence of misreporting, the leader’s profit is always higher than that of the follower. When there is misreporting, even if the retailer is the dominant player, its profit is still lower than the manufacturer’s. (3) Both supply chain profit and fresh-keeping level are positively correlated with the coefficient of consumer perception of freshness and the coefficient of sensitivity to fresh-keeping technology, and are more significant under the centralized decision-making model. Furthermore, in response to supplier misreporting behavior, this paper achieves coordination in the fresh supply chain by designing a joint contract and confirms the effectiveness of this contract through an arithmetic analysis.

The complexity analysis of decision-making for horizontal fresh supply chains under a trade-off between fresh-keeping and carbon emission reduction

This study primarily focuses on the impact of carbon emissions generated during the fresh product fresh-keeping process on the traditional fresh supply chain (FSC1) and the low-carbon fresh supply chain with emission reduction behavior (FSC2). Its objective is to investigate how these supply chains dynamically adjust the production quantity, fresh-keeping level, and emission reduction level of fresh products when constrained by the dual-carbon policy. The decision competition model between the two supply chains was explored under two scenarios: the horizontal Nash (HN) game and the long-term Stackelberg (LS) game, wherein FSC1 assumes the role of the leader. The findings indicate that as the carbon tax and carbon trading price increase, the fresh supply chain tends to decrease fresh-keeping intensity while increasing investment in emission reduction. Carbon emissions generated during the fresh product fresh-keeping process have a smaller impact on FSC2's profit than on FSC1, and FSC2 exhibits stronger adaptability under the dual-carbon policy. Irrespective of the game structure, if the adjustment speed of FSC1's production decision exceeds the stable range, its own profit will decrease while the other party's profit will increase. However, if the adjustment speed of FSC2's production decision surpasses the stable range, it will lead to a decrease in profits for both sides. Interestingly, in the LS game, when the adjustment speed of FSC1's production decision exceeds the stable range, FSC1 demonstrates a leader advantage and experiences a rapid increase in profit as the adjustment speed of FSC2's production decision increases, this phenomenon suggests that in the LS game, the leader prevails amidst market chaos.

A Financial Analysis of Meituan Based on Its External and Internal Environment

This paper conducts a comprehensive examination of Meituan, a prominent technology retail firm in China, renowned for its innovative "retail + technology" approach aimed at enhancing lifestyles through superior dining experiences. Evaluating Meituan's recent financial performance, the study underscores its impressive growth, marked by a 23% year-over-year surge in combined yearly sales, totaling 220 billion yuan, and a noteworthy adjusted net profit of 2.8 billion yuan. A critical analysis of the Chinese food delivery market reveals Meituan's dominant position, operating in a duopoly with Alibaba's Ele.me, while also anticipating the potential entry of Pinduoduo as a formidable competitor. The paper emphasizes the imperative for Meituan to strategically navigate the evolving landscape of the fresh supply chain domain, striking a balance between exploration and exploitation to establish a sustainable competitive advantage. Despite Meituan's robust revenue performance, with a first-quarter 2021 revenue surpassing CNY 37 billion and a remarkable YoY growth rate of 120.9%, potential hazards such as the intensification of antitrust regulations in China's Internet sector and operational challenges arising from Meituan's diversification efforts are explored. In conclusion, the analysis posits Meituan as a promising long-term investment, provided the company effectively addresses emerging risks and capitalizes on strategic opportunities in the ever-changing technology retail sector.

Research on investment optimization and coordination of fresh supply chain considering misreporting behavior under blockchain technology

In the traditional fresh supply chain, farmers commonly conceal the true quality information of their products in order to achieve better sales. This article focuses on the use of blockchain technology to address the issue of false freshness reporting in a two-level fresh supply chain consisting of a rural cooperative and a supermarket. Taking into account the dual losses of quality and quantity in the process of agricultural products transportation, the impacts of the product freshness and the blockchain investment level on random market demand are quantified in this paper. And game models for centralized and decentralized decision-making before and after investing in blockchain technology are proposed. By comparing the supply chain optimal decisions and performances under different scenarios, a revenue-cost sharing contract is designed to coordinate the decentralized decision-making. Simulation results show that the application of the blockchain technology can further consolidate the superiority of the centralized decision-making. However, there is a certain threshold for the application of the blockchain technology in decentralized decision-making. When the unit cost of blockchain exceeds the threshold, the rural cooperative will abandon its cooperation with the supermarket due to reduced profits. And the combined contract also has a threshold boundary for its coordinating effect on decentralized decision-making.

Pricing of fresh agricultural product supply chain under transportation interruption

With the trend of global economic integration and the improvement of logistics, transportation, and storage technology, regional restrictions on the sales of fresh agricultural products have gradually decreased. At the same time, due to traffic accidents, natural disasters, and other factors, the possibility of interruption in the transportation supply chain of fresh agricultural products has been increased. This article examines a three-level fresh supply chain with the possibility of transportation interruption. The Stackelberg method is used to solve the equilibrium solution, and the results under centralized and decentralized models are analyzed. We found that the increase in the probability and duration of transportation interruptions actually leads to less investment by distributors in cold chain services, resulting in increased profits for retailers and decreased profits for distributors and manufacturers.

Adopting Blockchain in Fresh Supply Chains: Low or High Level?

Adopting Blockchain in Fresh Supply Chains: Low or High Level?

Reliability Modeling Method of Fresh Food Supply Chain System based on Bayesian Network

By referring to the method of system reliability modeling in reliability engineering theory, the abstract problem of system operation failure of fresh supply chain is concretized. By constructing the operation sequence of each link in the system and the causal logic of event existence, the Bayesian network topology is constructed. The reliability model of the supply chain system is established to analyze the ability of the fresh supply chain from the production end to the consumption end of the supply chain system to operate smoothly. From the perspective of system reliability, the weak links of fresh supply chain are determined, which provides an effective model for accurately evaluating the system reliability of fresh supply chain.

Bottlenecks in Nigeria's fresh food supply chain: What is the way forward?

BackgroundNigeria is one of the leading producers of fresh produce, most of which is grown by smallholder farmers. Over 40% of this fresh produce is lost after harvest, resulting in more than 30% loss in smallholders’ income. Scope and approachWe identify the major bottlenecks in Nigeria's fresh food supply chain responsible for the high food losses. We propose possible solutions to mitigate them. Key findings and conclusionsA key bottleneck is that most fresh food produced in the northern region is largely consumed in the south, with the produce traveling long distances through a poor road network. The lack of a continuous cold chain is another key causative factor for food loss. Less than 10% of the fresh food produced passes through a cold chain despite the long distances it needs to travel. There is also limited access to supply chain data and expert market intelligence to assist stakeholders in the decision-making process and process optimizations. To mitigate food losses, smallholder farmers and retailers need better access to clean cooling solutions at affordable prices. This will help them extend produce shelf life and sell produce at attractive market prices by being able to cool their produce. Simple and small-scale passive cooling solutions may also help preserve food for these stakeholders, but are currently rarely used. Furthermore, the available open data needs to be made easily accessible to stakeholders along the fresh supply chain so they can make informed decisions on how best to reduce food losses and maximize profit. Smallholder farmers would also significantly benefit from easier access to expert intelligence on postharvest storage and market information. Providing such expertise via mobile apps can be a powerful tool for remote farmers in a country like Nigeria. Otherwise, it could be difficult to reach them. Nigerian governmental agencies can create the largest gains in the cold chain by implementing policies that support stakeholders financially and improve public-private sector partnerships for rural development.

Fresh food supply chain coordination with competition and differentiated freshness preservation methods

For a secondary supply chain consisting of a supplier and two competing retailers, freshness spoilage rate, competitive behavior and market capacity constraint are introduced into the traditional demand-substitution model. Under different preservation methods such as chilling and freezing, the Gounod double oligopoly game and the conspiracy game competition models between retailers are constructed with the benchmark of the centralized decision-making. The optimal sales price and ordering decision are secured, and the influence of market volume, freshness deterioration rate and demand substitution rate on the optimal decision is analyzed under different competition models. Meanwhile, an optimal revenue coordination contract is constructed to maximize the benefits of each subject in the fresh supply chain. The results show that the optimal sales price and optimal order quantity are positively correlated with the respective market volume and demand substitution rate, but negatively correlated with the deterioration rate of goods. The optimal coordination degree of the proposed revenue-sharing contract is 100%, which indicates that this contract can effectively coordinate the interests of all parties in the fresh supply chain and achieve the overall optimal supply chain.

Blockchain adoption decision analysis of fresh supply chain considering 3PL's misreporting behavior

In fresh supply chain, the third-party logistics service provider (3PL) has incentive to misreport its private information such as preservation service effort level and logistics transportation cost for the sake of gaining competitive advantage in the market. A tamper-proof and traceability system supported by blockchain technology (BCT) can prevent 3PL from misreporting. In this paper, we investigate the BCT adoption decision of a fresh supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, a retailer, and a 3PL when the 3PL misreports its private information. Specifically, we conduct four models: without BCT adoption and 3PL misreports its preservation service effort level (Model NE), without BCT adoption and 3PL misreports its logistics transportation cost (Model NC), without BCT adoption and 3PL misreports both preservation service effort level and logistics transportation cost (Model ND) and with BCT adoption and no misrepresentation (Model AB). By calculating the models, our study indicates that when the 3PL underreports its fresh-keeping service effort level and the degree of underreporting is high or when the 3PL overreports its logistics transportation cost and the degree of overreporting is high, all fresh supply chain members will reach an agreement on implementing BCT. However, when the 3PL misreports its fresh-keeping service effort and logistics transportation cost simultaneously, the BCT adoption decision is influenced not only by the misreporting coefficient of logistics transportation cost and preservation service effort, but also by logistics transportation cost. Finally, as logistics transportation cost increases, the manufacturer and retailer are reluctant to adopt BCT, while the 3PL is willing to adopt BCT.

Research on Pricing and Coordination of Fresh Supply Chain with Altruistic Fairness Concern

Considering a fresh supply chain consisting of one supplier and one retailer, this paper studies the pricing and coordination of fresh supply chain under altruistic fairness concern of the supplier. Based on the centralized decision and Stackelberg game theory, the decentralized decision model of supplier’s altruistic fairness concern is constructed, the pricing decision is analyzed, and the cost-sharing contract based on altruistic fairness concern is designed for coordination. The results show that the altruistic fairness concern of supplier can inspire retailer to improve the freshness-keeping effort level, which can help to the operation of retailer and supply chain, but damage the profit of himself. Freshness-keeping efficiency has an important impact on the marketing strategy of retailer: the retailer will implement the “high-quality with high price” if the freshness-keeping efficiency is low, otherwise implement the “high-quality with low price”. Cost-sharing contract based on the altruistic fairness concern can realize the perfect coordination of supply chain within a certain range.

Dynamic evaluation of enterprise green logistics consciousness and action level

Green logistics has become an important factor and challenge of supply chain manage- ment, green logistics and sustainable development under the actual demand, green enterprises from green consciousness to ideology, and then to the strategic concept and action, this development path urgently needs to be monitored, measured and evaluated. In order to carry out the dynamic evaluation of enterprise green logistics awareness and action level, the evaluation index system covering 7 dimensions and 50 measures is constructed, and the set pair analysis is combined with markov chain dynamic analysis to evaluate. The feasibility and practicability of the evaluation method are verified by a case study of a local fresh supply chain enterprise's awareness and action level of green logistics, which provides a scientific decision-making basis for the evaluation of enterprise's awareness and action level of green logistics.

Subsidy policies of a fresh supply chain considering the inputs of blockchain traceability service system

AbstractTo stimulate the development and application of blockchain technology, Chinese government put forward subsidy strategy. To explore the subsidy policies under the new background, we chose a fresh supply chain with one producer, one blockchain-based traceability service provider, and one retailer as the research object, and government subsidy strategies were divided into a fixed strategy and a varying strategy. Afterward, considering the trust level of blockchain-based traceability information and consumers’ preference to the blockchain-based traceability information, we revised the demand function, and three subsidy models were proposed and analyzed. Findings: (1) the varying subsidy will help the retailer, the producer, and the traceability service provider set lower prices. (2) Meanwhile, the varying subsidies offered to the blockchain-based traceability service provider and the producer will help the whole supply chain members obtain more revenues.

Problems and explorations of the fresh supply chain in China context

Through the study and comparison of the literature of many countries, the literature review and integration of the three aspects are mainly focused on the development of the operating mode of the fresh supply chain, the causes of the loss, and the research on the improvement of the loss of fresh products. Finally, through the comparative analysis of the research content, it points out the shortcomings of current research in China and the direction of future research. The research of fresh product loss management has been paid close attention to by scholars all over the world. This study has great significance to increase the total value of the fresh supply chain and the development of the fresh cold chain.

Contract Coordination of Fresh Agri-Product Supply Chain under O2O Model

The development of the fresh-food e-commerce has led scholars to pay more attention to research on the agricultural product supply chain. This paper analyses the operation mode of the new O2O retail fresh supply chain by constructing the Stackelberg game model, takes the freshness and freshness-keeping efforts of fresh agricultural products as the main considerations, and analyses and compares the overall income of the supply chain under different decision-making modes. The results of the study show that: (1) In a centralized decision-making model, collaboration between suppliers and retailers online and offline can increase their respective revenues, and overall supply chain profits increase as the proportion of collaboration increases; (2) compared to decentralized decision-making, revenue-sharing contracts can increase the overall profitability of supply chain members and the supply chain when the revenue sharing factor is relatively high in the case of online and offline channel collaboration; (3) finally, the impact of revenue-sharing contracts on supply chain profitability is discussed through numerical analysis.

Short vs. Long-Distance Avocado Supply Chains: Life Cycle Assessment Impact Associated to Transport and Effect of Fruit Origin and Supply Conditions Chain on Primary and Secondary Metabolites.

Avocado consumption and trade are increasing worldwide, with North America and Europe being the main importing regions. Spain is the major European avocado producer (90% of the production), yet it only supplies 10% of the market. Consequently, more than 90% of the avocados consumed in Europe are imported from overseas, mainly from Chile and Peru. In this work, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) impact associated with the transport of two avocado supply chains (short (Spanish) and long (Chilean)) and the effect of the fruit origin and distance of both chains on primary and secondary metabolites from harvest to edible ripeness were evaluated using a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography coupled to diode array detection (LC-DAD) based metabolite analysis. The LCA transport impact of the fresh supply chain from production centers in Chile (Quillota) and Spain (Malaga), and then the distribution to several cities in Europe, suggested road export from Spain to European capitals to have the lowest impact (0.14 to 0.22 kg CO2 eq/kg of avocado). When export from Chile was considered, the option of oceanic freight to European ports closer to final destinations was clearly a better option (0.21 to 0.26 kg CO2 eq/kg) than via the Algeciras port in Spain followed by road transport to final destinations in European capitals (0.34 to 0.43 kg CO2 eq/kg), although the situation could be somewhat different if the avocados are transported from the destination ports in northern Europe to long-distance capitals in other European countries. Fruit origin had a significant impact on avocado primary and secondary metabolites. The conditions of the supply chain itself (10 d in cold storage in regular conditions vs. 30 d cold storage + controlled atmosphere conditions) largely influence the fate of some metabolites that certainly affect the pool of metabolites at edible ripeness. The long-assumed hypothesis that the longer the supply chain the more negative impact on nutritional and functional compounds might not hold in this case, as long as transport conditions are adequate in terms of temperature, atmosphere conditions, and time considering distance from origin to destination.

Investment Decisions of Blockchain-Based Anti-Counterfeiting Traceability Services in a High-Quality Fresh Supply Chain of China

The application of a blockchain-based anti-counterfeiting traceability system (hereafter, blockchain-based ACTS) presents a positive effect on improving the unreliability of the freshness information. However, using a blockchain-based ACTS requires additional expenditures from chain members. Chain members want to know the investment conditions of a blockchain-based ACTS and how to coordinate their supply chain. To solve these problems, a supply chain with one fresh producer and one retailer was chosen as the study subject. Afterwards, considering the unreliability of the freshness information, the demand function was revised. Then, the profit functions before and after adopting a blockchain-based ACTS were constructed, and then a price discount and revenue-sharing contract was put forward to coordinate the supply chain. Findings: With the growth of the unreliability coefficient of the freshness information, benefits to chain members in the proposed three situations would be reduced. Thus, we can know that after using a blockchain-based ACTS, if chain members want to gain more benefits, they should try their best to excavate the value of the blockchain-based ACTS and reduce the unreliability coefficient of the freshness information.

Technology-enabled, Rapid-Response Fresh Food Supply Chains: A Paradigm and Case Study

Terra-fresh stands for TEchnology-Enabled, Rapid-Response FRESH supply chains. It is an integrated planning, analytics, and coordination environment that seeks to exploit the new technological realities of the supply chain of fresh agricultural. It constructs short, market-oriented supply chains for fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) based on the effective utilization of market intelligence, information technology, negotiation, grower collaboration, coordination, and planning decision support tools. Terra-fresh supply chains are resilient through rapid reconfigurability based on data and status estimation of the underlying physical supply chain and environmental conditions. This paper gives an overview of the different components that conform our vision of the integrated environment and presents a case study that illustrates the formation of coalitions of small growers to capture a market opportunity using some of the decision support tools encapsulated in Terra-fresh. Some of the underlying techniques for the formation of these coalitions include mathematical programming, forecasting and statistical monitoring.

Ordering Policy of Two-Stage Newsvendor Model for Fresh Retailer under RFID Investment

Fresh products have a strong dependence on time and a large loss rate in the circulation process. Applying RFID technology to the supply chain of fresh products, through the real-time tracking technology, can not only reduce the products’ time dependence but also realize the second order within the whole sales period. This paper takes a two-echelon fresh supply chain of a single fresh retailer as the research object, constructs a two-stage Newsvendor model with or without RFID technology, compares the difference in profits, and provides decision-making reference for fresh retailers whether to invest in RFID or not.