Supply Chain Strategies for Perishable Products: The Case of Fresh Produce

TLDR

Fresh produce such as melons and sweet corn reach peak value at harvest and deteriorate exponentially afterward until cooled, making supply‑chain design critical. The study aims to identify a hybrid supply‑chain model that minimizes lost value by combining a responsive post‑harvest‑to‑cooling phase with an efficient later phase, guided by the product’s marginal value of time. Using the product’s marginal value of time to quantify value loss, the authors develop a hybrid model that applies a responsive strategy from post‑harvest to cooling and an efficient strategy thereafter. The hybrid model shows that the post‑harvest‑to‑cooling and later supply‑chain segments are loosely coupled, requiring minimal coordination for value maximization, and that the MVT framework can guide strategies for other perishables.

Abstract

This paper examines supply chain design strategies for a specific type of perishable product—fresh produce—using melons and sweet corn as examples. Melons and other types of produce reach their peak value at the time of harvest; product value deteriorates exponentially post‐harvest until the product is cooled to dampen the deterioration. Using the product's marginal value of time (MVT), the rate at which the product loses value over time in the supply chain, we show that the appropriate model to minimize lost value in the supply chain is a hybrid of a responsive model from post‐harvest to cooling, followed by an efficient model in the remainder of the chain. We also show that these two segments of the supply chain are only loosely linked, implying that little coordination is required across the chain to achieve value maximization. The models we develop also provide insights into the use of a product's MVT to develop supply chain strategies for other perishable products.