How to make decisions in rural agri-food supply chains with cold storages: policies on planting, store and sale

In order to mitigate the deterioration of fresh agri-products, cold storages are built accelerating in rural areas. Different from traditional supply chains, it would be more flexible for the operation of rural agri-food supply chains with cold storages. The grower may not only sell the produce in in-season but also be engaged in cross-season. As a result, the grower may face both random yield and two-stage stochastic demand. How to make optimal policies in such a supply chain is a significant subject for the grower. This paper provides the grower with solutions for planting, store and sale to maximise his profit. We propose a single-period three-stage model for growers, find the solution to make the optimal planting quantity and derive the optimal rental capacity of cold storages. Numerical examples prove the reasonableness of the model and give management insights that the grower can improve planting technology and management, and demand forecast ability to make a higher profit.