What is cold chain logistics of fresh agricultural products

Cold chain logistics of agricultural products generally refers to the systematic engineering that fruits, vegetables, meat and other items are always in the prescribed low-temperature environment before production, storage, transportation, sales and consumption to ensure the quality and performance of the items. It consists of four aspects: frozen processing, frozen storage, refrigerated transportation and distribution, and frozen sales. Cold chain logistics needs to comprehensively consider various factors such as production, transportation, sales, economy, technology, etc., coordinate the relationship between them, and ensure the preservation of value of perishable fresh food in the process of processing, transportation and sales. The scope of food in cold chain includes vegetables, meat, aquatic products, dairy products and frozen food.

Second, the composition of cold chain logistics of agricultural products

It is mainly composed of four aspects: frozen processing, frozen storage, refrigerated transportation and distribution, and frozen sales.

cold chain logistics management process of agricultural products Cold chain logistics enterprise process of agricultural products

Freezing Processing: Firstly, fresh fruits and vegetables are cooled and frozen after production and meat, poultry, fish and eggs, and then the agricultural products are processed in a low-temperature environment. This link mainly involves cooling, freezing, quick-freezing device and sorting processing.

2. Frozen storage: including the cooling of agricultural products, frozen storage, air-conditioned storage. This link mainly involves a variety of cold chain delivery processing room, freezers, freezers, household refrigerators.

Refrigerated transportation: including long-distance transportation of agricultural products and short-distance distribution and other logistics links. Refrigerated means of transportation mainly include refrigerated trucks, railroad refrigerated containers, railroad refrigerated trucks, refrigerated ships and so on. In the circulating stage, the change of temperature can easily cause the quality of fresh agricultural products to decline. Therefore, the temperature of refrigerated transportation means should be kept at the specific temperature required for fresh produce.

4. Frozen sales:This includes the frozen storage and sale of a variety of cold chain agricultural products that enter the wholesale and retail chain. It is mainly related to refrigerated display cases and storage cabinets. Produce in this segment is prone to temperature fluctuations, which can be significant.

Third, the characteristics of fresh development of agricultural cold chain logistics

Fresh activity: Fresh food includes vegetables, fruits and aquatic products, animal products and other living organisms. The value of the products is freshness, and people buy fresh products with certain requirements on freshness.

2. Vulnerability:The logistics and distribution process of fresh commodities includes several processes such as harvesting, loading and unloading, transportation, etc. The loss of fresh food is especially obvious in these distribution processes. Vegetables and fruits are tender and easy to rot and deteriorate after breakage.

3. Timeliness: Due to the perishability of fresh and live agricultural products and the difficulty of storing them at room temperature, each unit of fresh and live agricultural products cold chain logistics must work timely and effectively. In order to shorten the whole circulation time and improve the operation efficiency, each link of the whole cold chain must be closely coordinated and connected.

4. High distribution cost:Nowadays, the logistics and distribution cost of fresh food includes transportation cost, loading and unloading cost, storage cost and so on. With the continuous increase of logistics cost, the proportion of logistics and distribution cost of fresh food to the total cost is also increasing.

5、High cost of construction projects: Since China's agricultural products require specialized freezing technology facilities and equipments in the production, processing, packaging materials, transportation, storage, sales and other logistics management links, and the degree of complexity and influence of cold-chain logistics in the design and construction is too high, which leads to high social cost of the construction of cold-chain logistics information system, long payback period of the investment, and may even result in sunk cost.

6. Informatization requirements: Due to the characteristics of fresh agricultural products and the high requirements of cold chain logistics, cold chain logistics must carry out multi-directional monitoring and tracking of the whole production and circulation process of agricultural products with the help of Internet information technology, so as to reduce the loss of products and ensure the high leanness and agility of its own system.

7. Organization and coordination: Due to the different functions of many links in the cold chain logistics of agricultural products and the high timeliness of agricultural products, the cold chain logistics must ensure higher organization and coordination.

8. Energy consumption control: Each link of cold chain logistics must strictly protect the specified low temperature environment, so cold chain logistics is a high energy consumption industry, so cold chain logistics in the construction process needs advanced technology to reduce energy consumption and enterprise costs.

9. High risk: unlike normal temperature logistics system, the production, processing and consumption markets of cold chain logistics are not centralized, which are greatly affected by objective factors such as market supply and demand, price, climate, transportation and energy, resulting in high investment risk and unstable benefit of cold chain logistics.

Four, the three major modes of fresh food logistics and distribution

1. Traditional wholesale market mode

Traditional wholesale market model is not subject to regional economic restrictions, large cities and small counties can see the wholesale market of agricultural products, the scale is uneven. As a traditional logistics distribution model, there are many logistics links. Agricultural products wholesalers according to their orders, quantitative procurement from the origin of agricultural products, and then transported to the large wholesale market concentration, agricultural products retailers directed procurement, flow to the agricultural products retail outlets.

This model was used more in the past when the logistics was not developed, but due to the high loss of agricultural products caused by many logistics links, it has been greatly impacted in today's developed logistics.

2、Self-built cold chain logistics

In the logistics and distribution mode of fresh agricultural products, cold chain logistics is the development trend of logistics and distribution. Under the control of cold chain equipment, the freshness of fresh agricultural products can be guaranteed and the fresh loss can be effectively controlled at any time constant temperature. However, the establishment of cold chain logistics requires a large amount of capital and must be supported by sufficient funds, which is a great financial pressure for many dealers.

3、Third-party enterprise logistics management mode

With the limited capital and the development of logistics, many fresh food distributors will combine their needs and begin to use the third-party logistics model. This model can reduce the logistics costs of agricultural distribution, while the third-party logistics companies are more professional, faster logistics and distribution, and less loss.

The third-party logistics model is:The distributor buys the agricultural products from the farmers, and after the customer places the order, the distributor sorts and packs the products by himself, and transports them to the customers through the third-party logistics.