| With the increase of people’s low-carbon awareness and the rapid development of fresh agricultural products,the introduction of low-carbon policies into the fresh agricultural products industry has become inevitable.During the period of the 13 th Five-Year Plan and the 14 th Five-Year Plan,the relevant government departments all emphasized the importance of vigorously developing low-carbon agriculture and controlling carbon emissions by implementing measures such as zero growth in the use of chemical fertilizer and controlling methane emissions from farmland.And the low-carbon policy has become an important driving force to promote the low-carbon operation of fresh agricultural products.In reality,there are two common low-carbon policies,namely carbon tax policy and carbon cap-and-trade policy.Due to the constraints of low-carbon policies,members of the supply chain will change their operational decisions in order to maximize their own profits,and may also increase profits through carbon emission reduction behaviors.When considering the carbon emission behavior of different supply chain members,the decision-making of the supply chain members will also change.At present,the issue of low-carbon supply chain has been studied by many domestic and foreign scholars.However,considering the fragility characteristics of fresh agricultural products and consumers’ low-carbon preference,there are few studies on introducing fresh agricultural products into the low-carbon supply chain.For this reason,based on the consideration of the carbon emissions of producers,the price per unit of carbon tax and the price of per unit of allowances are taken as the starting point,and the supply chain’s performances under the three scenarios of carbon tax policy,carbon cap-and-trade policy,and carbon cap-and-trade policy while the producer reduce carbon emission are studied.And further we consider the situation when both manufacturers and TPLSP are carrying out carbon emissions,.At first,based on the consideration of the carbon emissions of producers,we study the impact of carbon tax policy and carbon cap-and-trade policy on the decisions and profits of each member of the low-carbon supply chain of fresh agricultural products.The supply chain consists of a single producer,a single third-party logistics service provider(TPLSP)and a single retailer.We assume the situation that the logistics service level of TPLSP affects the freshness of products and consumers have a low-carbon preference consciousness.The results show that: under the carbon tax policy,with the increase of carbon tax price,the retailer and TPLSP keep the same decision variables and profits,but that of the producer’s product reduce due to the carbon tax,and the overall profit of the supply chain suffers the same loss as that of the producer.Under the carbon cap-and-trade policy,if the producer do not take the action of carbon emission reduction,with the increase of the carbon quota price,the retailer and TPLSP also keep the decision variables and profits unchanged.However,changes in the profits of the producer and the supply chain depend on the relationship between the carbon emissions of the producer’s products and the size of the carbon quota given free by the government.By comparing the two low-carbon policies,it is found that there is a boundary value in the relationship between the carbon tax price and the carbon quota price,which can provide a theoretical reference for producer when faced with the choice of entering the market of different low-carbon policies.Further,considering the carbon emission reduction of the producer under the carbon cap-and-trade policy,it is found that: the increase of carbon quota price may lead to the discount of emission reduction and market demand.It may also lead to the increase of emission reduction and stimulate the market demand.The profit of each member of the supply chain will also change with the two situations.The existence of a certain emission reduction range enables producers to increase their own profits through appropriate emission reduction behaviors,and at the same time produces a "free rider tendency ",which also benefits the retailer and TPLSP.However,if emission reduction is beyond the scope of that range,the producer’s profits will suffer due to the cost of emission reduction outweighs the benefits.Secondly,further consider the situation when both the producer and the TPLSP carry out carbon emissions.Research shows that under the carbon tax policy,the government adopts the carbon tax policy to not only affect the operation decision-making of carbon-emitting members,but also affect the non-carbon-emitting members.The government uses carbon tax policies to limit TPLSP carbon emissions,and then indirectly affects market demand,thereby affecting the entire supply chain and promoting the formation of a low-carbon supply chain.Under the carbon cap-and-trade policy,the relationship between the income of producers,TPLSP and the price change of unit carbon allowance depends on the relationship between the free carbon allowance granted by the government and a specific boundary value.For the retailer,the increase in the price of unit carbon allowances is always detrimental to the increase of retailer’s profit.The retailer has the same marginal profit under the carbon tax and carbon cap-and-trade policies.By comparing the market demand in the two situations,the relationship between the retailer’s profit in the two situations can be known,which can give retailers a certain reference for choosing low-carbon policies.Whether a producer can reduce carbon emissions is still related to the price of a unit carbon allowance in the carbon cap-and-trade market,and the reduction of the producer’s emissions will also increase the profits of TPLSP and the retailer.When considering TPLSP carbon emissions,a lower optimal logistics service level will lead to a decline in market demand,and indirectly reduce the profits of other members.The producer expects to increase its profit in the carbon cap-and-trade market after carbon emission reductions,so they have higher requirements for the price of unit carbon allowances and lower requirements for their own carbon emission reductions.From the perspective of academic research,this paper combines the vulnerability of fresh agricultural products and the low-carbon policy,which enriches the relevant research on the low-carbon supply chain for fresh agricultural products.From the perspective of reality,this paper provides a certain theoretical basis for the decision of the members of the tripartite supply chain for fresh agricultural products under the low carbon policy. |
