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.