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Abstract
This paper studies the possibility of increasing shipping of fruit and vegetables from Almería (southeast of Spain) to Port Vendres‐Perpignan (southeast of France). Almería is one of the areas of vegetables production largest in the world and Perpignan is one of the most important customers of Almería. After analysing the potential volume of shipping, we estimate a mode choice model which allows us to study the sensitivity of final clients (horticultural operators) to future change in the variables which condition the choice between transport by sea or by land. This will also help us to calculate the market share of each system as a function of foreseeable change in the variables.
Acknowledgements
This article has been carried out thanks to the Redymar Project (P10/08) which was financed by the Spanish Ministry of Development (MFOM) and the ECO2008‐03445 Project funded by the Spanish MCINN and FEDER aid.
Notes
1. A review of the definition of SSS can be seen in Musso and Marchese (Citation2002).
2. Refers to intra‐EU transport. Regarding extra‐EU sea transport (used mostly for import), we should differentiate between fruit and vegetables: the latter are more sensitive to sea transport than the former. Fresh fruit accounts for the vast majority of long distance sea transport. Sea transport of fresh vegetables (without potatoes and onions) is usually over short distances, and represents 20% of vegetables transport (Eurostat data).
3. The most important exported products are: pepper, tomato, cucumber, aubergine, courgette, melon, watermelon, lettuce and bean.
4. The maritime transit time (differential) for Almería–Port of Dunkirk is more than twice that for Almería–Port Vendres, that is 75 h (18 knots): 1.7 additional days.
5. It should be remembered that 61% of consumption of fruit and vegetables in France is via supermarkets and hypermarkets of large retail distribution chains (De Pablo et al., Citation2006).
6. Here, we contemplate the possibility that part of the produce of Murcia and Granada could be marketed via the port of Almería. The percentages of each province have been obtained from a survey of horticultural operators.
7. The percentages of sale of each country have been obtained from a survey of horticultural operators.
8. For a study analysing the determinants of maritime costs for Spanish exports, see Márquez et al. (Citation2007).
9. De Pablo and Pérez‐Mesa (Citation2005) analyse the cost leverage brought about by complaints at destination due to inferior quality.
10. For theoretical and practical descriptions of this type of model, see McFadden (Citation1974, Citation2000), McFadden and Train (Citation2000) and Revelt and Train (Citation1998). For the case of choice of transport mode, see Ortúzar (Citation2000) and Guirao et al. (Citation1995). Piyush et al. (Citation2003) and Tongzon and Sawant (Citation2007) use a discrete choice model to analyse preferences for shipping line services and facilities offered by ports.
11. In this analysis, only the price of land and intermodal service change annually (according to the variation of the cost component in both services). The value of the variables, transit time, unit value, % complaints and frequency will be the same as shown in Tables and .
