Discussion on Fresh Agricultural Products Ordering and Preservation Strategy under New Normal Carbon Emission Constraint

Jianhua Zhao,Ligui Chen,Peixiong Zhang

1.Baoshan Secondary Technician School of Yunnan Province,Baoshan 678000,China;2.Vegetable Production Farm of Shenzhen Huantong Farming Products Co.Ltd.,Shenzhen 518103,China;3.Chaozhou Vocational Technician School of Guangdong Province,Chaozhou 515642,China

Abstract The paper mainly discusses the influence of chemical,physical and biological preservation technology improvement on the preservation strategy of fresh agricultural products.Meantime,the relationship between fresh agricultural products ordering and preservation in the environment of new normal carbon emission constraint is analyzed,and the e-commerce strategy in the digital era is put forward to achieve the win-win situation of consumers,farmers and dealers,so as to achieve good ecological,economic and social benefits.

Keywords Carbon emission constraints;Fresh agricultural product;Ordering and preservation strategy

During the 14thFive-Year Plan period,China’s ecological civilization construction has entered a critical period of promoting synergistic interaction of reducing pollution and carbon emissions,accelerating the overall green transformation of economic and social development,and realizing the improvement of ecological environment quality from quantitative change to qualitative change,with carbon reduction as the key strategic direction.China’s effort to achieve peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060 is a major strategic decision made after careful consideration.The term"carbon"in"peak carbon dioxide emissions"and"carbon neutral"refers narrowly to carbon dioxide and more broadly to greenhouse gases.Peak carbon dioxide emission is the point at which carbon dioxide emissions peak and then decline.Carbon neutral refers to that the amount of carbon emission and removal achieves a balance,that is,carbon neutral or net zero emissions.It mainly has two levels of meaning.One is to reduce carbon emissions by using clean technology,energy substitution and other means,so as to get closer to the target of"peak carbon dioxide emissions";another is to increase carbon capture and storage through biological measures and other means[1].

Under carbon emission constraints,developing refined fresh agricultural products while taking the road of sustainable development is in line with the national environmental policy requirements,which is more suitable for the industry strategic objectives of long-term,orderly and sustainable development.At present,the ordering,preservation and carbon emission of fresh agricultural products are the key research issues for the majority of practitioners.From numerous references,it is also shown that fresh agricultural products prolong freshness while increasing operating costs,and carbon emissions are closely related to ordering and preservation of fresh agricultural products.

1 Market Status of Fresh Agricultural Products Industry

Fresh agricultural products mainly include vegetables,fruits,meat,eggs,milk,aquatic products,wild fungi and other fresh primary products,whose main characteristics are short freshness cycle,easy to corruption and damage.Fresh agricultural products have always been indispensable necessities in people’s daily life and occupy a very important position in the broad consumer market.Fresh agricultural products have a huge space for development in China’s consumer market,for example,"raw seafood"is the"favorite"of some people.The freshness degree determines the value index of fresh agricultural products and also directly affects people’s health.Therefore,the freshness and food safety of fresh agricultural products are important issues that people concern all the time[2].

With the development of the national economy,the domestic fresh market is facing great opportunities for development.The data demonstrated that the domestic fresh market volume from 2010 to 2018 has showed a trend of straight rise,and even reached an amazing figure of 2 trillion yuan in 2018.It is predicted that it will reach a higher amount in the future.Therefore,many enterprises are very optimistic about the future development of fresh market and want to occupy a place in the fresh market.However,fresh agricultural products are very different from other commodities,because fresh agricultural products need to maintain the freshness of products and different quality of commodities,and there are often large fluctuations in the price of fresh commodities,resulting in increased difficulty in fresh business.The stock management of fresh agricultural products has the characteristics of high demand for freshness,sensitive to price and high investment in preservation.Hence,if we want to manage fresh agricultural products well,we should solve the problem of fresh agricultural products ordering and preservation under the background of carbon emission constraints.

2 Fresh Agricultural Products Preservation Technology under Carbon Emission Constraint[3-4]

2.1 Chemical preservation technology

2.1.1 Edible film preservation technology.Edible fresh-keeping film is covered on the surface or inside of fresh agricultural products by wrapping,impregnating and spraying,forming a film composed of edible substances,so as to delay the postripening cycle and aging of fresh products.Meantime,it can effectively inhibit the growth and propagation of microorganisms on the surface,achieve the purpose of improving the storage quantity and quality of fresh agricultural products,facilitating transportation,and extending the fresh cycle of fresh agricultural products.At present,the shelf life of this edible freshkeeping film is about 6 months,and the production cost is basically kept in a very low range,only a few cents.Edible freshkeeping film is very promising in the context of carbon emission constraints.Such edible film can be eaten or washed away with water.

2.1.2 Nano preservation technology.Nanomaterial used refers to the material that is nanoscale in at least one dimension in its structure.For example,the nano freshkeeping film developed by the National Agricultural Products Preservation Technology Research Center can inhibit about 70% of Botrytis cinerea,and its other indicators significantly exceed the conventional fresh-keeping film,especially the preservation effect of fruits and vegetables in fresh agricultural products is excellent.Moreover,it has stable performance and almost no decays,and can continue to function for decades,so it can be used again and again.

2.1.3 Air conditioning preservation technology.Fresh packaging treatment is carried out through compound air conditioning.In simple terms,compound fresh gas is used to displace the air inside the fruits and vegetables in the package.The commonly used protective gases in China are carbon dioxide,oxygen and nitrogen.These protective gases are exchanged with the gases inside the package so as to achieve the purpose of prolonging the freshness and shelf life of fruits and vegetables.Currently,the packaging cost of this technique is about 1 yuan per 500 g meat,so it is very suitable for less-developed areas.

2.2 Physical preservation technology Low temperature cold chain technology refers to the low temperature storage means used in the whole process of fresh agricultural products being picked and collected,circulated,stored,transported and finally sold on shelves.The quality loss of fresh agricultural products most often occurs in the process of transportation,and the technology can effectively ensure the freshness of fresh agricultural products and reduce product quality reduction.The technology also has requirements on the temperature of cold storage and cold chain,and the temperature is generally required to be below 5℃.The cost of this low temperature cold chain preservation technology is relatively low,and the freshness of products preserved by this technology is better.The technology has a wide range of use,many kinds of products for preservation,and a wide range of application.Food cold chain is of great significance in guaranteeing food quality and safety.

2.3 Biological preservation technology The principle of biological preservation technology is to isolate fresh agricultural products from the air,which can effectively delay the oxidation of fresh agricultural products,and slow down the aging degree of fresh products.Because of effective bacteriostatic effect,biological preservative can well achieve the purpose of keeping fresh degree and preventing the decay of fresh agricultural products.Besides,it is also conducive to microbial metabolism and can inhibit the growth and development of harmful microorganisms,thereby achieving the purpose of extending food shelf life.As people attach importance to food safety, biological preservation technology has gradually become a hot topic in food preservation because of its unique natural,efficient and safe advantages,and biological preservation materials are generally biodegradable,without causing secondary pollution.

3 Ordering and Preservation Strategies for Fresh Agricultural Products under Carbon Emission Constraints

Production and consumption can not be synchronized in a timely manner because of the difference between market supply and demand.The main consumer market of fresh agricultural products is in urban areas with large population density,but the producers of fresh agricultural products are relatively scattered,and the asymmetry of product information will lead to the imbalance of supply and demand in the market.In addition to the perishable nature of fresh products and related standards of storage temperature,humidity and other environmental factors,fresh agricultural products have higher investment in preservation,which are covered in the cost,closely related to the pricing cost.The inventory management of fresh agricultural products is characterized by high requirements for freshness,sensitivity to price and high investment in freshness.The core of inventory management can be divided into three words:purchase,sales and storage,which influence and restrict each other[5-6].

3.1 Ordering strategy of fresh agricultural products under carbon emission constraints

3.1.1 Fresh preservation and ordering without carbon emission constraints.The inventory of fresh products will change with the change of market demand,and will also be affected by deterioration and preservation.Good fresh-keeping effect can alleviate the rate of product deterioration to a certain extent.The economic benefit of fresh ordering cycle without carbon emission constraint is mainly composed of sales revenue,order cost,ordering cost and fresh-keeping cost.

3.1.2 Fresh preservation and ordering under carbon emission constraints and trade mechanism.According to the principle of carbon cap and trade mechanism,the carbon emission generated in fresh ordering process is estimated and measured,and converted into carbon emission cost or carbon reduction benefit through carbon price.The economic benefits of fresh agricultural products to be considered under the principle of carbon cap and trade mechanism are mainly composed of sales revenue,order cost,ordering cost and fresh preservation cost,as well as carbon emission cost.The relationship between carbon intensity formula and each key variable is very close.Carbon intensity is the carbon dioxide emission brought by ordering benefit, and the numerical change of carbon intensity has a direct impact on the emission reduction level of fresh agricultural products ordering.

3.2 Ordering and preservation strategies of fresh agricultural products under carbon emission variables

3.2.1 Minimum carbon emission.In the case of minimum carbon emissions,carbon emissions directly affect the ordering and preservation of fresh agricultural products.

3.2.2 Minimum carbon intensity.In the case that fresh retailers do not intend to increase the carbon emission cost,they would rather increase the fresh-keeping factor of fresh agricultural products but do not want to change the fresh-keeping factors,fresh retailers are most likely to choose to extend the fresh order cycle rather than increase the carbon emission cost.

In order to present the emission reduction level more intuitively,carbon intensity can be used to measure the efficiency level between economic benefits and carbon emissions,and a data model related to the ordering and preservation strategy of fresh agricultural products under carbon constraints is established accordingly.When the carbon emission is minimum,the optimal service rate is proportional to the preservation factor.There is only one optimal ordering cycle in the case of minimum carbon intensity.Therefore,when the carbon price is high,the increase of carbon allowance is beneficial to reduce carbon intensity,and the carbon cap does not affect the preservation factor.When the carbon cap is small,the increase of deterioration rate will shorten the ordering cycle,and the increase of carbon price will increase the carbon intensity.

4 Conclusions

Peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutral is essentially a new revolution from unsustainable"black development"to sustainable"green development",the core of which is the development of green economy.Domestically,the concept of ecological civilization construction and green development has won widespread support,and the importance of China’s active response to climate change has been widely recognized by the masses of the people.This provides a guarantee for the smooth progress of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutral from the ideological level.Meantime,years of development have enabled China to have relatively strong economic and technological strength,which can provide solid economic and technological support for peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutral.By the end of 2019,China’s carbon intensity had dropped 18.2% compared to 2015,meeting the binding targets set for the 13thFive-Year Plan ahead of schedule;carbon intensity decreased by about 48.1% compared to 2005,and non-fossil energy accounted for 15.3% of primary energy consumption,fulfilling China’s 2020 target promised to the international community ahead of schedule[1].

Carbon allowance is mainly affected by national policies and industry-related policies.Enterprises engaged in fresh retail industry can only accept the allocation scheme.However,carbon price is a product of trading market and is mainly affected by changes in product supply and demand.Therefore,in the period of strict carbon emission constraints,in order to reduce the economic losses caused by emission reduction,the fresh agricultural products industry can achieve the goal by shortening the ordering cycle and reducing the order quantity.The rate of change of fresh agricultural products can also be used as a basis to formulate ordering and preservation strategies in different situations.

With the advent of the digital era,e-commerce also has unique advantages in the food sales industry,and the market of fresh agricultural products has successfully opened up a new channel.Compared with the traditional channel mode(producerdealer-consumer),the e-commerce oriented business mode(producer/farmer and consumer directly establish supply relationship,e-commerce platform is used to build sales network,middlemen becomes sales platform)greatly reduces sales and operating costs,such as live commerce,market selling goods,etc.This channel does not hinder the operation of traditional channels,and the pricing and inventory management strategy can be more flexible in the dual-channel mode of operation.Pricing strategy and inventory management strategy under dual channels have more changes in consideration and decision making,which can be improved reasonably according to sales strategy,to effectively cope with the negative impact of external market environment and consumer demand,and make full use of strengths and avoid weaknesses.For example,the pre-sale model is used as a part of inventory management.In this mode,order-driven sales are carried out,and purchasing plans are made according to the needs of consumers to drive suppliers to deliver goods.This order-driven mode enables the whole fresh electricity supply chain system to accurately respond to customer demand and effectively control the inventory level[6-7].

In short,with the growing demand for fresh agricultural products,the overall market demand is rising,and the sales management of fresh agricultural products is also facing new challenges.The improvement of the preservation technology of fresh agricultural products should be considered under the carbon emission constraints.Whether the pricing strategy or the inventory strategy,the supply chain of fresh agricultural products should be based on the overall situation,look at the overall situation,evaluate the situation,clear the market environment,consumer demand,business interests and other factors,set up multi-stage and flexible pricing strategy,and plan inventory management strategy according to supply relationship,to improve the overall profit.