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Fresh flower logistics knowledge sharing highlights!
Author：未知 Source： Updated:2023-09-13 11:09:18
The Flower shipping market is booming ahead of the Chinese traditional festival Qixi.Under the general trend of E-commerce shopping, online flower ordering has become the main sales channel of florists.Acco
The Flower shipping market is booming ahead of the Chinese traditional festival Qixi.Under the general trend of E-commerce shopping, online flower ordering has become the main sales channel of florists.According to the big data of the major e-commerce platforms, three-quarters of consumers choose fresh flower in all kinds of flower variety, and the sales of eternal flowers and dried flowers also have a certain growth year-on-year. Under the premise of the improvement of the overall structure of the flower industry, its matching logistics needs are also undergoing significant changes.
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1.Flower Logistics Overview
Flower logistics mainly refers to the characteristics of flowers themselves for the organization of goods, transportation,
warehousing, distribution and other logistics activities,it is the most critical aspect of flower circulation, running through
the whole industry chain of flower products from the origin to the consumer market.
However, the development of flower logistics is not as flat as imagined. Due to the perishability and timeliness of flowers,
flower logistics requires the professional use of facilities, the constraint of logistics process and the limitation of time competition.
Today, flower logistics is still the relationship node that restricts the development of the flower industry.
2.Study on fresh-flower supply chain model
Under the tide of consumption upgrading, the development of China's flower industry is in full swing.From festival etiquette consumption to family consumption, personal consumption, consumption area from 1st & 2nd-tier cities to 3rd & 4th-tier cities and even new rural areas in wealthy areas,
consumption channels are shifting from traditional flower markets to e-commerce and garden centers...With the change of consumer concept and the upgrading of demand in the post-epidemic era, coupled with the deep integration of live media such as e-commerce and Internet celebrities,moreover, new business models based on the fresh-flower supply chain industry will further emerge, the high-end, personalized and customized flower consumption is an inevitable trend. The fresh-flower e-commerce will also usher in a rapid development opportunity, extending to a deeper and broader field, and the industry competition will further increase.
The traditional flower supply chain level is complex, for example, the flower products will be transferred and collected from the origin of Yunnan for several rounds, then shipped to the primary wholesale market around the country, and then transferred to the secondary or even tertiary wholesale market, so there are usually four to five links in the middle.Resulting in increased logistics costs, aging, flower material prices are pushed up, while the quality of flowers is difficult to ensure.However, through the calculation of IT technology, big data and AI, the market demand and planting supply are closely connected, and a new flower supply chain model is developed.Compared with general products, flowers have some differences in the logistics process such as storage and transportation. It can be said that flower products are one of the most difficult categories to do in the entire logistics field.
Based on the characteristics of flower products, flower logistics centers can be generally divided into three categories nationwide, including the advance warehouse (FDC)located in the farmer's field, the national central warehouse (NDC) located in the origin, and the regional logistics center (RDC) established in the core cities of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei、Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai、Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area.
It is precisely because of the special attributes of non-standard flowers and strong timeliness, as well as the hot condition of live plants in the field, the new flowers picked by farmers on the day need to be transported to the nearest FDC pre-warehouse at the first time, in the warehouse for pre-cooling treatment, maintenance with fresh water, gray mold water sterilization, and unified and standard post-harvest treatment technology and process. The processed flower materials are centralized in the surrounding NDC cold storage for storaging and packaging, and then transportation and distribution will according to the purposes of each RDC.
3.Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of fresh cut flower logistics
China's traditional flower transport mostly adopts air transport and ordinary road transport (less than half load), of which air transport is regarded as "standard".Although air transportation has the advantage of fast aging, it also has drawbacks such as extrusion, damage, and uncontrollable temperature caused by compression packaging. Therefore, the study from NDC to all parts of the country using direct trunk & refrigerated truck for cold chain transportation, point-to-point, stable transportation aging, the whole temperature inside the truck can be detected and controlled. Of course, each mode of transportation has its advantages and disadvantages, the following content is for reference only.
01 Air Cargo
Time: Normal prescription is 1-2 days, holiday prescription 2-3 days
Advantages: time fast, less goods damage
Disadvantages: Higher price
Fee composition: main line freight + delivery fee, non-direct city need to pay transfer freight, if there is a distribution demand, pay additional delivery fee
02 Cold Chain/Motor Transport
Time: normal prescription is 2-3 days, holiday prescription is about 3 days (Yunnan Guizhou Sichuan Chongqing normal
prescription 1-2 days including holidays)
Advantages: fast aging, cheap price, low damage
Disadvantages: customers need to pick up goods by themselves, goods damage is slightly higher
Fee composition: main line freight + delivery fee, non-direct city need to pay transfer freight, if there is a distribution demand, pay additional delivery fee
03 Express to the store
Time: normal time about 2~3 days,
Advantages: fast door-to-door delivery, good logistics after-sales service
Disadvantages:The price is high, the holiday transportation time is not stable
Cost composition: One cost delivery to the store, including Hui Tong to the store,
SF Express, Deppon and so on
04 Railway Transport
Time: The normal prescription is 2-3 days, the prescription depends on the shift
Advantages: Cheap price and low damage
Disadvantages: No pick-up fee with documents to the station, limited weight (25kg/ piece) and regional restrictions
Fee composition: main line freight + delivery fee
For flowers, from the moment they are picked down, the quality is gradually decreasing, and the loss is serious. For the purpose of cost control and ensuring the quality of flowers, reducing the loss has become one of the important control points of enterprises, and the focus of reducing the loss is in the logistics distribution link. With the continuous progress of modern logistics technology, cold chain logistics, logistics packaging equipment and so on are constantly involved in the flower logistics market.
It can be said that with the support of the development of new technologies, the flower market will become the fifth largest daily consumption area of Chinese consumers in the future after "food, clothing, housing and transportation", and the future flowers are full of opportunities in supply chain management, logistics distribution, quality control, research and development and other fields.