Using market intelligence for the opportunistic shipping of fresh produce

The main goal of this paper is to develop an opportunistic shipment policy that increases a farmer's commercialization reach within a secondary market with minimal or no capital investment, once a base market has been established. Basically, the operation would consist of sending fresh produce items into a secondary market (from the base) whenever momentary price differentials allows two-market transactions with a high probability of profit. A theoretical model is developed that maximizes potential operational revenues based on arbitrage opportunities existent within two-market structures. Ultimately, the validity and applicability of this model is demonstrated through the application of a case-study. The results of the case-study show that using the decision-making strategy defined by the proposed theoretical model cannot only increase the long-term profits of two-market operations but can also lower the profit variability, in comparison to only commercializing in a single base market. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.