Fresh Supply Research Articles

Research on the Coordination of Fresh Food Supply Chain Based on the Perspective of Blockchain and Low Carbon

We consider a three-stage fresh agricultural product supply chain consisting of a supplier, a third-party logistics service provider (TPLSP), and a retailer and discuss the coordination mechanism of “revenue sharing + double cost sharing” contracts and “two-part tariff + revenue sharing + double cost sharing” contracts between the supplier, TPLSP, and the retailer. Based on this, we not only explore the conditions for supply chain full coordination and Pareto improvement but also analyze the effect of blockchain technology application cost, consumer environmental protection awareness, freshness preference, green trust level on carbon emission reduction level, fresh-keeping effort level, price decisions, and profits by comparing three different decision-making models. Results show that the improvement of the green trust level can help to improve the carbon emission reduction level, fresh-keeping effort level, price decisions, and profits. The application of blockchain technology can reduce transaction costs and improve consumer green trust levels, thereby increasing market demand and profits. When environmental protection awareness and freshness preference are higher than a certain value, the unit retail price of fresh products under decentralized decision-making is the highest with the blockchain technology applied. TPLSP can increase the wholesale, service, and retail prices of fresh products by appropriately increasing the blockchain technology application cost-sharing ratio. When 15 < T 1 < 29.2416 and 47 < T 2 < 66.0408 , “two-part tariff + revenue sharing + double cost sharing” contracts can achieve the Pareto improvement.

Metaheuristic optimizers to solve multi-echelon sustainable fresh seafood supply chain network design problem: A case of shrimp products

Seafood products are sought-after among communities all over the globe and are the main sources of essential nutrition for humans. Recently, the seafood supply chain networks have encountered obstacles that new sustainability regulations and the pandemic have brought forward. In this study, a novel supply chain network is developed for fresh seafood, considering sustainability aspects, to ideally balance the financial aspect of the network while enhancing the recycling of waste products. Moreover, four metaheuristics are employed to conquer the computational complexity of exact solution methods. To evaluate the performance of the algorithms in addressing the complexity of the proposed seafood supply chain model, some numerical examples in three different scales are designed. The obtained results from metaheuristic optimizers are assessed based on five effective measures. To facilitate the statistical analysis process, each measure is normalized using the relative deviation index indicator. According to the results obtained from the implementation of metaheuristic algorithms, it can be concluded that the multi-objective grey wolf and multi-objective golden eagle optimizers outperform the other two solution methods in terms of quality of solutions. Therefore, they can be applied efficiently in solving real-world seafood supply chain network problems.

Green, resilient, agile, and sustainable fresh food supply chain enablers: evidence from India.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10479-023-05176-x.

Analysis of procurement strategies in a two-period fresh product supply chain

PurposeMotivated by the wide application of procurement strategies in retailing, this paper aims to examine the effect of procurement strategies on decisions and profits and strategic inventory (SI) is considered.Design/methodology/approachThe game-theoretic models are developed under a two-period fresh product supply chain (FSC), and consist of the mode of purchasing products only in the first period without SI (Scenario S), the mode of purchasing products in every period without SI (Scenario T) and the mode of purchasing products in every period with SI (Scenario TS).FindingsConducting the calculating and comparing, some major findings can be concluded. In general, two-period purchasing strategies (Scenarios T and TS) promote a higher freshness-keeping effort than the single buying strategy (Scenario S). Regarding the pricing strategy, SI and Scenario S can both contribute to obtaining a lower wholesale price, the retailer's pricing is relatively complicated and hinges on the consumer's sensitivity to freshness-keeping effort and the holding cost. Besides, comparing the sales quantity and the profit, the authors find that Scenario TS stimulates more demands and brings more profits for the manufacturer. However, Scenario TS is not the optimal selection for the reason that SI sometimes hurts the retailer and even the whole supply chain. Whereas, when the holding cost is in a certain range, Scenario TS will lead to a win-win situation.Originality/valueThe main findings of this study can give the enterprises some advice on the procurement strategies of fresh products and the decisions of pricing and the freshness-keeping effort.

Fresh Product Supply Chain Analysis in Cauca, Colombia — A Hass Avocado System Dynamics Approach

In recent years, agriculture has become an essential activity in Colombia, despite the challenges faced by farmers due to low yields and insufficient resources to improve their main activities, such as irrigation systems, agricultural practices, and industrial machinery. This Hass avocado approach has been addressed in previous research considering system dynamics simulation to evaluate farmers’ behavior strategies and improve their competitiveness. However, these studies typically examine a single strategy effect and avoid multiple integrated strategies. Other studies focused on the complex interactions between different factors in the production chain and their feedback effects on farmers’ productivity and cash flow. For these reasons, this research provides a comprehensively dynamic model and evaluates long-term strategies and their effects on supporting and improving small farmers’ productivity and profitability. A system dynamics methodology was used to model complex systems processing Hass avocado farmer association data and explore their effects on competitiveness for long-term sustainable and profitable agriculture. This research proposes optimal scenarios for small farmers, including strategies such as low-interest credit access, logistics practices, and government technical support. The scenarios provide a proactive tool for decision makers and promote rural farmers’ development, aligning high-quality fresh product supply and demand.

Numerical Analysis and Service Quality Evaluation of the Fresh Agricultural Produce Supply Chain Platform

The traditional performance evaluation method, which is mainly based on financial indexes, is no longer applicable to the current dynamic, complex, and coordinated evaluation of the service quality of fresh agricultural produce supply chains. Comprehensive evaluations regarding the quality of coordination-based supply chain services are now required. Specific analyses of index weights, the identification of potential problems, the exploration of the best solutions, and efforts to improve the current situation—regarding the circulation of fresh agricultural products—are also required. By carrying out this research, this paper aims to construct a coordination-based service quality evaluation index system for the fresh agricultural produce supply chain platform. The evaluation system that was created covered the four dimensions involved in platform supply chain coordination. These dimensions are capital flow, logistics, business flow, and information flow. On this basis, this study designed a survey questionnaire to collect data to evaluate customer service quality satisfaction. The research used AHP and the Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation method to calculate and analyze indexes and models in the “Fresh Networking” project. Furthermore, this paper proposed a sensitivity analysis model of MCDM evaluation indexes and their weights. In order to verify whether the numerical analysis method was suitable for use in the MCDM evaluation system, in this paper, the sensitivity analysis process of the indexes and their weights was introduced in the evaluation of the “Fresh Networking” project. The evaluation results may reflect the real quality of service in the “Fresh Network” supply chain. The final conclusion to be drawn from this paper is that capital flow is the most sensitive weight, which means that it should be designed and implemented in accordance with optimization-based decisions. The novelty of this paper lies in: (1) the proposal of a coordination-based service quality evaluation index system which includes four dimensions: capital flow, logistics, business flow, and information flow; (2) the design of a research questionnaire for data collection; and (3) the introduction of an improved sensitivity analysis method for the MCDM index. The results presented in this paper will enrich the theoretical research related to MCDM in supply chain evaluations. The results of the analysis can be used to guide supply chain decision makers to make optimization decisions accordingly, which will ensure overall benefits in terms of supply chain coordination, improving the capacity of preservation services, and loss reduction.

Dynamic blockchain adoption for freshness-keeping in the fresh agricultural product supply chain

During COVID-19, the explosive growth of demand for fresh agricultural products on E-commerce platform has increased the difficulty of maintaining the greenness and freshness in delivery. The traditional cold chain delivery is effective in keeping greenness, but its information asymmetry makes the freshness-keeping activities unable to be regulated, which may lead to the supply chain members giving up their freshness-keeping efforts. Can the blockchain technology effectively solve these problems? We consider a fresh agricultural product supply chain consisting of a supplier and an E-commerce platform (retailer). The retailer is responsible for the wholesale and sales of fresh agricultural products, and determines the blockchain adoption degree and advertising effort. The supplier is responsible for delivering fresh agricultural products to consumers, and determines the greenness investment and freshness-keeping effort. Based on the traditional and blockchain-based fresh agricultural product supply chain, we discuss the dynamic optimization of freshness-keeping effort, advertising effort, and blockchain adoption degree. Results show that the supplier will give up the freshness-keeping effort after receiving the wholesale funds in the traditional fresh agricultural product supply chain, which will naturally worsen the fresh agricultural products. When adopting blockchain technology, the supplier continues to make the freshness-keeping effort in delivery. And five specific settings are proved that blockchain is effective in maintaining freshness. But two other specific settings are determined that it is not suited for adopting blockchain. In addition, compared with the traditional fresh agricultural product supply chain, blockchain adoption can effectively reduce the freshness-keeping effort, advertising investment and goodwill for achieving the same profit margin level, and will not affect the greenness investment decision of the supplier. Our research can provide some insights into the cold chain logistics management of fresh blockchain.

Middle-ranking household food acquisition: the impact of marketplaces on purchasing patterns and networks of supply in eighteenth-century Bristol and Boston

ABSTRACT Studies of consumption have historically focused on the ways early modern consumers acquired fashionable and novel goods. More recently, the focus has shifted towards the consumption of everyday commodities by rural households. This study addresses the most central component of household consumption, food, and assesses the impact of urban marketplaces on its acquisition. Using a comparative analysis of food provision for middle-ranking households in Bristol and Boston, 1734-1742, it highlights the complexity and range of considerations required to ensure regular, fresh supplies of food. This study demonstrates that, despite the greater prevalence of advertising and conventional retailing in the food marketplace in Boston, factors peculiar to food provision, such as perishability and authenticity, meant both households continued to acquire this essential commodity through trusted, local, often familial, suppliers.

Study on The Supply Security of Fresh Products Under Public Health Emergencies

Strict control taken in response to public health emergencies (PHEs) can hinder fresh products supply, while stock-outs and the risk of epidemics can increase fresh products demand. To explore the interrelationship between outbreak control measures and the availability of fresh products, this paper establishes a dynamic synergistic model of epidemic transmission subsystem and fresh products supply-consumption subsystem based on system dynamics (SD). Taking the spread of COVID-19 in Shanghai from March to May 2022 as the actual background, the impact of different storage strategies and control measures on epidemic prevention and material supply was quantitatively evaluated. The results show that risk transmission factor (RTF) affects the number of infections and the intensity of community control contributes to controlling the spread of the epidemic, but it can continue to affect fresh product supply security. Therefore, increasing fresh product protection inputs and reducing in-transit time can reduce fresh product losses and improve fresh product supply security under PHEs. The findings can enable fresh products to effectively match supply and demand under PHEs, mitigate the impact of epidemic risks and provide decision support for relevant retailers.

Fresh agricultural products supply chain coordination considering consumers' dual preferences under carbon cap-and-trade mechanism

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>In order to achieve the goal of "carbon neutral" development, under the conditions of carbon quota trading policy, consumers' preference for fresh agricultural products and low-carbon preference, this paper discusses the equilibrium decision-making problem of a two-level fresh agricultural products supply chain. And the cost sharing contract and the two-part pricing contract are introduced to coordinate the supply chain. The results show that: the fresh-keeping and low-carbon efforts made by fresh produce suppliers are related to consumers' preferences, fresh-keeping costs, low-carbon costs, fresh-keeping carbon emission factors, and carbon reduction efficiency; under certain conditions, both the cost sharing contract and the two-part pricing contract can coordinate the supply chain of fresh agricultural products; given certain costs and carbon reduction efficiency, which contract retailers choose depends on consumers' consumption preferences and the size of the supplier's initial carbon emissions; when both contracts are valid, it is more advantageous for the retailer to choose two-part pricing contract; the higher the carbon trading price, the better the incentive effect on suppliers' fresh-keeping efforts and low-carbon efforts.</p>

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.

ВЛИЯНИЕ РАЗВЕДЕНИЯ ЛОБСТЕРОВ В ЗАЛИВЕ СУАН ДАЙ, ПРОВИНЦИИ ФУЙЕН НА СОЦИАЛЬНО-ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКУЮ И ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКУЮ ОБСТАНОВКУ

Xuan Dai Bay, province Phu Yen has diverse biot and high species richness. This is a favorable condition for the development of aquaculture with high-value farming species such as lobster, cobia, grouper... Based on the history of aquaculture and enviromental conditions, the Provincial People's Committee of province Phu Yen planned to develop Xuan Dai Bay into a key aquaculture area for high-quality seafood (lobster). Research results show that lobster farming operations in the area are very crowded and growing rapidly. Lobster farming has made a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the area in recent years through larval fishing, fresh food supply, and lobster trade. Lobster farming has clearly changed the face of the countryside, creating many jobs, increasing incomes and improving the lives of people in the area. However, leftover food is dumped directly into the bay, which is one of the causes of environmental pollution. At all sampling stations, the content of total organic carbon in bottom sediments is high. It varies widely between sampling stations and tends to be high in the interior of the bay. The average value is 51.21±11.85%, ranging from 26.68% to 62.12%. These organic substances decompose, causing changes in the structure of sediment particles, reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen in water and sediment and even, under severe hypoxic conditions, promoting a series of anaerobic reactions, creating toxins for living organisms.

A case of fresh fruits and vegetables supply chain performance improvement: a system dynamics modelling and analysis

A case of fresh fruits and vegetables supply chain performance improvement: a system dynamics modelling and analysis

A Dynamic Model for Risk Assessment of Cross-Border Fresh Agricultural Supply Chain

A Dynamic Model for Risk Assessment of Cross-Border Fresh Agricultural Supply Chain

A GIS-based interactive map enabling data-driven decision-making in Nigeria's food supply chain

The accessibility of open-source data on fresh food supply chains provides key stakeholders from the public and private sectors with insights for better decision-making to drive food loss reduction. Nigeria has a fair amount of open-source agricultural and climate-related data. However, most of these datasets are not readily accessible. This paper presents a detailed method used to develop an interactive web Geographic Information System (GIS) tool that collates and visualizes available open-source datasets on Nigeria's Agricultural Sector with particular focus on the fresh produce supply chains. The following steps were used to create such an interactive map.•Open-source data were acquired in various forms, including tabular, vector, and rasters, processed and uploaded as layers on the interactive web map.•Most of the data needed some processing on open-source geographic information system applications and web-based computing platforms to transform them into sources of actionable insights•These final processed layers were then uploaded to a consolidated interactive web map built on the Google Earth Engine platform.The gathered open-source data includes crop production data, market prices, weather, road network, market locations, mobile coverage, water access, water scarcity, and food insecurity. The method described here also allows the reproduction of such maps for other countries.

A Case of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Supply Chain Performance Improvement: A System Dynamics modeling and analysis

A Case of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Supply Chain Performance Improvement: A System Dynamics modeling and analysis

Dynamic Decision-Making in Fresh Products Supply Chain With Strategic Consumers

Dynamic Decision-Making in Fresh Products Supply Chain With Strategic Consumers

The supervision game of economically motivated adulteration behavior of fresh agricultural product suppliers

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of fresh agricultural product suppliers is a serious threat to public health. In this paper, considering the deliberate and concealed nature of EMA, the social benefits brought by the effective supervision and the "free riding" behavior of suppliers, we build a three-party regulatory game model composed of local governments, dealers, and suppliers to study how to reduce the EMA behavior of fresh agricultural product suppliers. The results show that (a) Since local governments cannot effectively reduce EMA of suppliers only by increasing the incentives, it is necessary to establish a complete reward and punishment mechanism. (b) The government and dealers can increase the cost of EMA by increasing adulteration penalties and improving detection methods so that reduce suppliers' EMA. (c) Compared with the inspection cost, the local governments' penalties for inspection failures are a decisive factor affecting dealers' inspection methods. When the local governments' penalties are strong, even if the cost of improving inspection is higher, the dealers will actively improve the inspection level. Our study shows that the tripartite coordinated supervision mechanism can effectively curb the EMA behavior of suppliers, thereby ensuring the quality safety of the fresh agricultural product supply chain.</p>

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.