An Empirical Research On The Impact Of Rising Labor Cost On The International Competitiveness Of China’s Fruit And Vegetable Products

Since China’s accession to the WTO,China’s fruit and vegetable export trade has developed rapidly with the advantage of low labor costs.However,in recent years,with the sharp rise in labor costs,the export price of fruits and vegetables in China has continued to be higher than the average export price of fruits and vegetables in the world,and the price advantage has gradually weakened.In addition,the fruit export trade deficit continues to expand,and the international market share of vegetables shows a downward trend,indicating that China’s fruit and vegetable export trade is facing serious challenges.Moreover,in 2021,Central Document No.1’clearly put forward to enhance agricultural competitiveness is one of the important goals of agricultural modernization.Therefore,in the face of the current export trade pressure of fruit and vegetable products,combined with the development goal of agricultural modernization,it is necessary to explore the impact of rising labor costs on the international competitiveness of fruits and vegetables.Firstly,based on the basic situation of fruit and vegetable production labor force,this paper analyzes the labor cost changes of fruits,apples,citrus,vegetables,tomatoes,radish and the basic structure of production factors from three aspects of input intensity,price and labor cost.Secondly,five types of indexes are used to measure the potential and dominant competitiveness of fruits and vegetables and major products in China from the perspective of production and trade,and the comparative analysis between fruits and vegetables is carried out.Finally,the impact mechanism is analyzed from the four perspectives of cost,price,factor substitution and scale.The relevant explanatory variables are selected according to the Potter model,and the data from 1994 to 2018 are selected.The ARDL model is used for relevant empirical tests.Research shows that:(1)The labor cost of fruits and vegetables in China has increased significantly.The increase in labor costs is mainly caused by price changes,while the impact of input is relatively small,because the change in labor input of fruits and vegetables shows a significant downward trend,and the production of fruits and vegetables tends to be labor-saving.With the decrease of labor input intensity,fruit and vegetable production machinery input increased greatly,fertilizer input is relatively stable,but there is a downward trend;The change trend of labor cost of fruit and vegetable production can be divided into three stages: low cost stable stage,small rise stage and rapid growth stage.The rising labor cost of fruits and vegetables is the main reason for the rising production cost of fruits and vegetables.(2)The international competitiveness of fruits and vegetables in China showed varying degrees of decline.From the perspective of potential competitiveness,the DRCC coefficient of China ’s main fruit and vegetable products shows a slow upward trend in fluctuation,which means that the comparative advantage of China ’s fruit and vegetable products is gradually weakening,that is,the potential competitiveness is declining,but on the whole,fruit and vegetable products still have stable and significant comparative advantages.From the perspective of dominant competitiveness,the dominant competitiveness of fruits and vegetables measured by IMS index,TC index,RCA index and QCI index showed a downward trend.Vegetables,radish and apple showed strong competitive advantage,while fruit,citrus and tomato showed weak competitive advantage.(3)In the long run,rising labor costs have a negative impact on both potential and dominant competitiveness.The increase of labor cost leads to the increase of domestic production input cost through cost effect,which reduces the comparative advantage of fruit and vegetable production in China,so the potential competitiveness of fruit and vegetable will decrease.Second,the price transmission effect of labor cost rise is stronger than the factor substitution effect and the scale economy effect,which leads to the decrease of the price competitiveness of fruit and vegetable products in China,and finally leads to the decrease of the dominant competitiveness of fruit and vegetable.Chemical fertilizer input and mechanical input have negative impacts on the potential and dominant competitiveness of fruits and vegetables;Land investment positively affects the potential and dominant competitiveness of fruits and vegetables through large-scale operation;The contribution rate of output value promotes both potential and dominant competition of fruits and vegetables;Trade openness negatively affects the potential competitiveness and positively affects the dominant competitiveness of fruits and vegetables.Based on the research objectives and conclusions of each chapter,in order to cope with the negative impact of rising labor costs on the international competitiveness of fruits and vegetables,this paper puts forward the following four countermeasures and suggestions:(1)To promote the mechanization of fruits and vegetables and improve the production efficiency of fruits and vegetables;(2)Promote the large-scale development of fruits and vegetables,improve the economies of scale;(3)Promote the brand building of fruits and vegetables and promote the high-quality development of fruits and vegetables;(4)Create a good trade environment to enhance the export competitiveness of fruits and vegetables.