2017 Volume 90 Issue 2 Pages 137-149
The purpose of this research is to clarify how the intensification of apple shipments to wholesale markets is developing in the context of the increasing transaction volume in conjunction with the merger of Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. Apple shipments by the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative are used as a case study. The results of this study show that apples are sent to wholesale markets when apple stocks accumulate at the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. There was a concentration of volume at wholesale markets in major cities to which large shipments were feasible. However, this often placed various burdens on those wholesale markets such as requests to provide packing bags and difficulties in receiving the prices sought by the Tsugaru Hirosaki Agricultural Cooperative. On the other hand, in wholesale markets without the capacity to receive large shipments, there was a tendency toward increasing shipments to markets offering a transaction advantage of loose specifications for prices and grades as well as to markets requesting an increase in shipment volumes.
However, even in markets receiving small amounts, shipments to markets with few advantages in trading are on a downward trend. Furthermore, the study shows the relationships among different markets, including an overlap in apple grades shipped to markets with the capacity to receive large shipments and those without transaction advantages, reduction in the shipment of apples to markets with the capacity to receive only small shipments, and concentrated shipments to markets with the capacity to receive large shipments.
Geographical Review of Japa,. Ser. A, Chirigaku Hyoron
