Spatial Coupling Between Specialized Production of Fruits and Vegetables and Front-End Cold-Chain Logistics

Abstract

The production and supply of fresh agricultural products (APs) vary greatly with seasons and regions. However, there is no seasonality or regionality in consumer demand for such products. The supply-demand contradiction hinders the coordinated development of agriculture and logistics. To solve the contradiction, this paper measures the level of fruit and vegetable (F&V) specialized production, and evaluates the quality of front-end coldchain (FECC) logistics. Next, the coupling degree model was extended into a coupling coordination model. Taking Xinjiang as the study area, the authors empirically analyzed the coupling coordination between the specialized production level of vegetables and the quality of FECC logistics, and that between the specialized production level of fruits and the quality of FECC logistics. The results show that the spatial coupling coordination between F&V specialized production and FECC logistics is relatively low in Xinjiang; the dynamic coupling coordination between fruit industry and FECC logistics is lower than that between vegetable industry and FECC logistics; the incoordination and slight coordination are attributable to the insufficient supports of FECC logistics, and the low strength of specialized production. Finally, several countermeasures were put forward to improve the coupling coordination between F&V specialized production and FECC logistics in Xinjiang. The research findings shed new light on sustainable development of cold chain logistics for fresh APs.

Port Environmental Quality or Economic Growth? Their Relevance and Government Preference in Developing Countries

“…Zhang and Chi [9] analyzed coordination between regional economic development and the environment in some provinces of China. Many scholars study the coordinated development of the environment and economy [10][11][12][13], but there are a few studies on the coordinated economic development model of the carrying capacity of resources and environment and its structural characteristics in a specific region. In a real society, there are often various conflicts between the economic and environmental objectives among different regions, and the study of targeted solutions is the basic condition to improve the efficiency of regional resource allocation and market competitiveness.…”