To promote the sustainable development of agriculture and reduce resource waste, this paper investigates sustainable financing strategies for a green fresh agri-food supply chain. We employ a purely theoretical Stackelberg game model and numerical simulations based on hypothetical parameters to develop three financing models for a supply chain consisting of one capital-constrained farmer and one retailer, considering consumers’ dual sensitivity to product freshness and greenness. Analytical and numerical results reveal that: (1) with low financing rates, internal financing effectively alleviates under investment in preservation, leading to higher wholesale/retail prices. In a green-sensitive market, the resulting price premium compensates for cost increases, avoiding the “low quality–low price” trap under external financing. (2) The retailer’s total profit decreases as the internal financing rate rises; higher interest income cannot offset demand loss caused by reduced preservation effort. Thus, a low- or zero-interest strategy maximizes the retailer’s operational profit. (3) As consumer sensitivity to freshness and greenness increases, profit growth under internal financing displays convexity. However, under extremely high freshness sensitivity, external financing yields stronger marginal incentives, suggesting that retailers should adjust profit allocation in the high-end market. The findings provide theoretical guidance for financing mode selection and practical insights for promoting green agricultural sustainable development.
Jia et al. (Thu,) studied this question.