Fresh fruits and vegetables distribution system in China : Analysis on the feasibility of Agriculturalsuper-docking

Abstract: Background: Along with the rapid economic development in China, some associatingproblems emerged, such as inflation. Especially for the daily consuming fresh fruits andvegetables (FFV), the price goes up at very fast speed, which draws a lot of publicattention on it. Farmers are discouraged and hurt by the low vegetable prices. However,end consumers are complaining about the high vegetable prices. A consensus is reachedthat the problem behind this phenomenon exists in the "distribution links".Aim: How is the current status of FFV distribution system of supermarkets in China?What factors do influence the efficiency and cost of the system? How is theimplementation of ASD in China and what are the advantages and barriers? Should it beimplemented widely? If yes, what are our recommendations to improve it?Definition: Agricultural super-docking is a new method of supply and distribution offresh agricultural products from farmers to supermarkets directly, by signing anagreement of intent between farmers and merchants, in order to build an efficientplatform for quality agricultural products to enter the supermarkets. The essence of ASDis to dock the thousands of small farmers and the different supermarkets to build anintegrated production and marketing chain to gain benefit for merchants, farmers andconsumers at the same time.Completion and results: It is a complex task to improve the efficiency of FFVdistribution system of supermarkets in China and there is a long way to go to implementASD successfully and widely since this market is at the starting stage and immature. Toimplement ASD successfully and widely, professional FFV third-party distributioncenters should be constructed, as well as exchanging information norm.