The Apple Value Chain

Apple growers' income improvement is a major social and economic problem of ‘issues of agriculture,farmer and rural area'.It is a new stage of the apple industry development mode reform,and it is vital to improve the competitive advantage of apple industry.As the primary product provider,the apple growers' production and manage efficiency is the important foundation of apple value increasing,participant margin profit increasing,and development of apple industry.So much studies research on farmer' income increasing and agriculture development through value chain analysis,but it is less on apple value chain analysis through quantitative method.Based on the above background,this dissertation takes the fresh apple value chain as the research object,and takes the value chain linkers and the whole value chain as the basic unit.At the base of value chain theory,this dissertation constructs the theoretical framework of the apple value chain research from the perspective of apple value appreciation.Using a large set of first-hand survey data from the growers,Wholesalers and retailers,this dissertation makes an in depth study on the problem of low income growth and the slowly development in apple industry.Following the logic of ‘selecting the typical value chain – analysis the value appreciation of the value chain linkers along the typical value chain,identifying the key factors to value appreciation of the linkers along the typical apple value chain – analysis the whole typical value chain through a statistic method,identifying the key link from the perspective of apple value appreciation –matching the key factors and the key link of the apple typical value chain,to find out ways to explore the space of value appreciation',this dissertation puts forward a countermeasures and suggestions to the apple value chain optimization and upgrading,to realize the main purpose of increasing the linkers income improving and the high development of apple industry.This dissertation consists of four parts,and the main content of each part is as follows:The first part briefly introduces the main purpose,the theoretical basis,the main research method and the framework.The second part including Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 is a theoretical analysis of apple value chain study.Establish the statistical and economical model for empirical analysis.Selects a typical and representative apple value chain,designs field research program and the data collection for the third part.The main content of third part is apple's typical value chain empirical analysis,involving Chapter 4,Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.Using the follow-up survey data to analyze the value appreciation on the typical apple value chain,identifies the key factors of cost driving and value appreciation.Analyzes the value-added structure of the value chain and the rule of margin profit distribution.Reveal the opportunities and ways of embedding the value chain participant in the high value-added link of apple value chain,and provides the theoretical basis for optimizing the apple value chain from the perspective of subject profit sharing.The fourth part concisely drew the main conclusion based on theoretical and empirical analysis,and put forward the apple value chain optimization proposal.The main results are as follows:1.The organizational is essential to enhance participant's value-added ability.It is found that the organizational difference of apple growers is the main reason leading to the significant difference of its value-added ability.It is difficult for independent apple growers to improve their value-added share in the value chain profit.Apple growers' participation in professional cooperatives have a significant role in promoting their value-added ability.2.The asymmetry of information raises the cost of the circulation.Circulation distorts the market order and squeezes others' profit share through information advantage.Multilevel wholesale increases the redundancy cost of the apple value chain.3.Retail is the key link of the collectors-oriented typical apple value chain which accounts for 54.32% of the value-added of the chain.The fruit chain store has the top ability to enlarge its margin profit share on apple value chain.The random transaction relationship along the value chain hinders the information transmission efficiently between production and market.Failure to form a collaborative role of value activities,It is difficult to the participants to share the additional profit.The value chain stability is poor.4.Retail is the key link of the cooperative-oriented typical apple value chain which accounts for 55.82% of the value-added of the chain.It is conductive to improve the status of the growers when the cooperative takes part in the apple value chain.That is,the cooperatives embedded in the high value-added segment of apple's value chain,not only can improve the participants' benefits,but also can expand the value-added space.It is easy to form a stable cooperative relationship among the participants,so as to improve the efficiency of information transmission,reduce the cost of redundancy,and promote the optimization and integration of value chain.On the basis of the above conclusions,this paper puts forward the optimization proposal from the three aspects of apple's value chain,these are operation environment,apple value chain segment and the inter-relationship,so as to break down the bottleneck of ‘small production big market',to enhance apple value chain participants income raise constantly,and apple industry develop efficiently.