The Theoretical And Empiciral Study On "Supermarket-Farmer Direct Purchase" In China

Since reform and opening up thirty years ago, the pace of Chinese agriculture towards marketization, internationalization and modernization has been increasingly speeding up. However, during the development process of Chinese agriculture, a series of problems have been emerging, such as the contradiction between small-scale production and large market, the difficulties to raise farmers’income, supervise and control food safety, satisfy consumers’ diverse and multi-level demands, etc. To tackle these problems, it’s necessary to investigate from the entire circulation process of agricultural products, optimize agri-supply chain mode by innovative thinking. Supermarket-farmer direct purchase offers a new method and way to solve the above problems. The implementation of supermarket-farmer direct purchase projects makes it possible to link modern retailers at the selling end and the farmers at the production end, thus facilitating the upgrade of the circulation system of agricultural products with the solid strength and rich experience of modern retailers.The practice of supermarket-farmer direct purchase in China has just been carried out several years ago, based on the which experience, this paper analyzes and concludes the different modes of supermarket-farmer direct purchase from the theoretical perspective, and reaches scientific conclusions through empirical test. On the basis of solid field survey, supported by economic theories including transaction cost theory, institutional change theory, and game theory, and from the angle of entire supply chain, this paper carries out the study by revolving around the definition of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, the reason of implementing supermarket-farmer direct purchase, the emergence and development and supermarket-farmer direct purchase, the operation and promotion of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, and the impacts and challenges of implementing supermarket-farmer direct purchase.Beginning from the connotation of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, this paper defines the constitution of supermarket-farmer direct purchase from two aspects of material carrier and relevant subjects. The essence of supermarket-farmer direct purchase was embodied by "direct purchase", which means the direct linkage between the production and sales ends of agricultural products by eliminating redundant links. Raw and fresh agricultural products are the important trading carriers of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, while relevant subjects such as supermarkets, farm households, mesosphere institutions, consumers, and governments are the major components of supermarket-farmer direct purchase.By applying institutional change theory and based on summarizing the general circulation mode of raw and fresh agricultural products, this paper argues that supermarket-farmer direct purchase is a kind of innovative institutional arrangement and the reform of traditional circulation system, and expounds the theoretical logic and realistic necessity of the emergence of supermarket-farmer direct purchase. Then, from the perspective of the development of supply chain of supermarket agricultural products, this paper summarizes the evolutionary route of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, which experiences several stages from the initiative self-operation with the aim of improving varieties and items, to the releasing and cooperative operation aiming to ensure profitability, to the delivery by suppliers regaining autonomy, and finally to the supermarket-farmer direct purchase in current situation.This paper elaborates the choice of operational modes of supermarket-farmer direct purchase from diverse angles. First, from the angle of entire supply chain, this paper summarizes the operational modes of supermarket-farmer direct purchase according to three different classification standards, and makes comparative analysis of these three different modes from the angles of basic classification, mode characteristics, and advantages and disadvantages. Then, from supermarkets’perspective, this paper analyzes the application conditions of these classification modes, and testifies the viewpoints with related case studies. Finally, from farm households’perspective, this paper sets up a "mesosphere institution-farm household" income model, and analyzes the concrete foundations of choosing different optimization modes, reaching the conclusion that farmers’professional cooperative as the mesosphere institution is the optimal mode of supermarket-farmer direct purchase.From the three subjects of supermarkets, farm households, and farms’professional cooperatives, this paper studies the participatory behaviors and appraises the application effects of these subjects. First, from various aspects such as the initiative stage, production, purchase and inspection, quality traceability, this paper expounds the detailed measures of carrying out supermarket-farmer direct purchase, and finds that supermarket-farmer direct purchase plays a positive role in improving supermarkets’comprehensive benefits, supplying system, enterprise competitiveness, product quality, and food safety. Second, from the level of farm households, this paper applies Probit model to analyze the factors influencing farmers’participation in supermarket-farmer direct purchase, which implies that small-scale farmers face the hazard of being excluded from the direct purchased system of supermarkets, organized and specialized production facilitate farmers’access to supermarket-farmer direct purchase, technical guidance and safety training helps agricultural products meet the purchase standards of supermarkets, and the distance from and the age of the nearest wholesale market also influence farmers’participation. By applying multi-logistic and structural function, this paper appraises the participatory effects by farmers, finding that supermarket-farmer direct purchase increasingly facilitates farmers’net agricultural income with the growing proportion of agricultural products supplied to supermarkets, supermarket-farmer direct purchase via mesosphere institutions plays a more positive role in increasing farmers’agricultural income, supermarket-farmer direct purchase helps improve the standardization level of farmers’safe production behavior and safe production consciousness. Finally, referring to the participatory behaviors of cooperatives, this paper uses Probit and Tobit models to analyze the participatory realization and level of supermarkets in supermarket-farmer direct purchase, which shows that during the many factors, the existence period of cooperatives, registered capital, processing and packing, logistic distribution ability, scale of product supply, and varieties products supplied, all have direct impact on the realization of supermarket-farmer direct purchase. Through investigation on cooperatives, this paper finds that supermarket-farmer direct purchase has positive impact on improving marketing, quality safety, technical management, brand effect of cooperatives.From four aspects of initiation, operation, guarantee methods, and institutional system, this paper analyzes the challenges facing the sustained development of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, and puts forwards corresponding policy recommendations. During the promotion of supermarket-farmer direct purchase, measures should be taken to cultivate the correct recognition and strengthen the willingness of various participatory subjects to participate in supermarket-farmer direct purchase; the exchange platforms should be set up to reduce information-searching costs by relevant subjects, overcome channel obstacles during cooperation, governmental support and policy implementation should reinforced to facilitate the conversion of willing into reality; measures should be taken to promote the healthy development of various kinds of mesosphere institutions, with special attention to the cultivation of farmers’professional cooperatives; institutional construction should be strengthened to guarantee the implantation of supermarket-farmer direct purchase increases farmers’benefits.