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Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains
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Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Agriculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 4121

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Marius Constantin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agri-Food and Environmental Economics Department, Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: agricultural economics; agricultural competitiveness; agri-food value chain; sustainable development; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Raluca Ignat

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agri-Food and Environmental Economics Department, Faculty of Agri-Food and Environmental Economics, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania
Interests: agricultural value chain; agri-food economics; cost-benefit analysis; sustainability; resilience
Prof. Dr. Donatella Privitera

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Educational Sciences Department, University of Catania, Via Biblioteca 4, 95124 Catania, Italy
Interests: cultural and food tourism; landscape analysis; economic and regional geography; sustainable cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to contribute to this Special Issue that targets analyses showcasing how market dynamics, policy interventions, and institutional changes can reorient agricultural economics toward more sustainable and resilient agricultural food value chains.

The scope of this Special Issue is oriented toward topics such as agricultural value chain governance, resource efficiency, innovative circular economy models through the eco-design of agricultural value chains, and policy evaluation, approached through the lens of the urgency gained amid increasing market volatility, geopolitical conflicts, climate change, and resource scarcity.

The papers published in this Special Issue should supplement the existing literature by moving beyond traditional efficiency-oriented one-sided analyses toward comprehensive systemic assessments of agricultural economies that account for environmental externalities, social inclusion, long-term resilience, and other drivers of sustainability for agri-food value chains. By combining theoretical perspectives with empirical evidence, this Special Issue seeks to offer innovative instruments, tools, metrics, and policy insights that inform the design of sustainable agri-food value chains capable of addressing the challenges of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Dr. Marius Constantin
Prof. Dr. Raluca Ignat
Prof. Dr. Donatella Privitera
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • agricultural economics
  • agricultural value chains
  • sustainable food systems
  • sustainability assessment
  • policy evaluation
  • resilient agri-food systems

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

33 pages, 1903 KB  
Article
Scale Development of Resilient Inclusive Fresh Product Supply Chain Governance in the Face of Climate Change
by Bayu Sumantri, Tomy Perdana, Hesty Nurul Utami and Kusnandar Kusnandar
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 4852; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18104852 - 13 May 2026
Viewed by 507
Abstract
Scale development provides the measurement and understanding needed to build resilient supply chains. It transforms abstract concepts into measurable strategies for resilience in a volatile, climate-driven environment, as they are not adequately addressed in the literature, particularly within the SDG on climate change. [...] Read more.
Scale development provides the measurement and understanding needed to build resilient supply chains. It transforms abstract concepts into measurable strategies for resilience in a volatile, climate-driven environment, as they are not adequately addressed in the literature, particularly within the SDG on climate change. This scale measures the resilience of inclusive fresh produce supply chains across three governance types. Therefore, it captures the resilience inherent in different governance types, namely, the extent to which the measured results of inclusive fresh produce supply chain resilience across governance types. The study used a scale-development approach. The results indicate that four key dimensions of inclusive fresh product supply chain resilience to climate change are adaptability, transformability, robustness, and recovery speed. Sixty-one items were identified for scale development, drawn from the literature and modified through in-depth interviews. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) have validated four factor groups. They are adaptability (three items are Access_2, Access_3, Access_5), transformability (three items are Awareness_1, Awareness_2, Awareness_3, Awareness_4), robustness (three items are Physics_1, Physics_2, Physics_3), and recovery speed (four items are Recovery_1, Recovery_2, Recovery_3, Recovery_4). Respondents ranked recovery speed as the most critical resilience dimension, reflecting the time-sensitive nature of fresh product supply chains. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains)
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19 pages, 240 KB  
Article
Sustainable Purchasing of Tea by Hotels, Cafes and Restaurants in France: An Exploratory Study
by Benoît Royet and Peter J. Batt
Sustainability 2026, 18(10), 4654; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18104654 - 7 May 2026
Viewed by 669
Abstract
When purchasing tea for hotels, cafes and restaurants in France, quality and taste are the two most important variables employed by executive chefs in choosing between alternative suppliers. However, the importance of other buying criteria differed significantly between institutions that purchased sustainable tea [...] Read more.
When purchasing tea for hotels, cafes and restaurants in France, quality and taste are the two most important variables employed by executive chefs in choosing between alternative suppliers. However, the importance of other buying criteria differed significantly between institutions that purchased sustainable tea (STBs) and those that did not (NSTBs). For STBs, food safety and sustainability were the second most important criteria, with offer quality and a competitive price being the third most important considerations. However, for NSTBs, a competitive price was the second most important consideration, followed by food safety and offer quality. Sustainability was the fifth most important purchasing criteria for NSTBs. In fulfilling their desire to purchase sustainable tea in France, with the exception of high cost, there were few problems associated with either the supply of sustainable tea or its quality. The most important constraint in purchasing sustainable tea was internal to the business and was contingent upon the personal beliefs and motivation of the executive chef. For enterprises that did buy sustainable tea, executive chefs had a strong personal belief in the need to adopt more sustainable practices. However, they also had a very different customer orientation. While STBs believed that there was a strong demand for sustainable tea and that their customers were more willing to pay a price premium, NSTBs believed that there was no such demand. While STBs reported a significant reduction in their environmental impact, an improved business image and improved relationships with customers, suppliers and their employees, purchasing sustainable tea had no impact on their competitiveness. Purchasing sustainable tea did not attract new customers, increase sales, improve profitability or lower costs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains)
31 pages, 3336 KB  
Article
Forecasting Peruvian Blueberry Exports for Sustainable Agricultural Trade Management: Markov Chains, SARIMA, and Log-Linear Growth
by Jean Michell Carrión-Mezones, Francisco Eduardo Cúneo-Fernández and Rogger Orlando Morán-Santamaría
Sustainability 2026, 18(9), 4529; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18094529 - 4 May 2026
Viewed by 949
Abstract
Peruvian fresh blueberry exports have expanded rapidly since 2012, yet strong seasonality and price–volume fluctuations continue to complicate trade planning and export decision-making, thereby threatening the long-term economic sustainability of the sector. Using monthly series for 2012–2025, this study compares three forecasting approaches [...] Read more.
Peruvian fresh blueberry exports have expanded rapidly since 2012, yet strong seasonality and price–volume fluctuations continue to complicate trade planning and export decision-making, thereby threatening the long-term economic sustainability of the sector. Using monthly series for 2012–2025, this study compares three forecasting approaches to export value (FOB), export volume and unit price: (i) a seasonal Markov chain with Monte Carlo simulation (Markov–Monte Carlo), (ii) a log-linear growth model, and (iii) a seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA) model estimated using logarithmic data. The models are evaluated under a common train–test design, with the last 12 months (September 2024–August 2025) reserved for out-of-sample assessment. Model performance was evaluated through standard metrics, specifically Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), while model adequacy was examined through residual diagnostics, including Ljung–Box tests. For the Markov–Monte Carlo approach, simulated distributions were also used to characterize forecast uncertainty. Findings indicate that the log-linear growth model provides the most accurate short-term point forecasts for FOB values, and the SARIMA model performs better for export volume; the Markov–Monte Carlo approach, however, yields the best performance for export prices and provides additional insights into seasonal regimes. Overall, these results suggest that no single model dominates across all dimensions of the export chain. Instead, the combined use of forecast approaches offers a more comprehensive basis for sustainable trade management, export planning, and risk management in dynamic agricultural export sectors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains)
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27 pages, 1726 KB  
Article
Temporal Multi-Objective Optimization for Sustainable Agricultural Finance: Evidence from Evolutionary Algorithms
by Aylin Erdoğdu, Faruk Dayi, Ferah Yildiz, Farshad Ganji and Ahmet İçöz
Sustainability 2026, 18(8), 3839; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18083839 - 13 Apr 2026
Viewed by 649
Abstract
This study presents a modeling framework for multi-objective optimization in agricultural finance, emphasizing profitability, risk management, and sustainability. The proposed Advanced Financial Framework for Temporal Synergistic Optimization (AFFTSO) does not introduce a new algorithm; rather, it structures existing optimization workflows to explicitly integrate [...] Read more.
This study presents a modeling framework for multi-objective optimization in agricultural finance, emphasizing profitability, risk management, and sustainability. The proposed Advanced Financial Framework for Temporal Synergistic Optimization (AFFTSO) does not introduce a new algorithm; rather, it structures existing optimization workflows to explicitly integrate temporal dynamics, evolving objectives, feedback loops, and sustainability-oriented considerations. AFFTSO is designed to support long-term planning under fluctuating economic and environmental conditions. To demonstrate its applicability, AFFTSO is applied to a 25-year Turkish agricultural dataset (2000–2025), encompassing production, financial, market, and climate indicators. Two widely used evolutionary algorithms—Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO)—are benchmarked within this framework, optimizing profit, financial risk, and resource-use efficiency simultaneously. Results show that NSGA-II consistently outperforms MOPSO, yielding a 12.4% increase in cumulative net profit, a 20.3% reduction in financial risk, and a 15.7% improvement in resource-use efficiency. These outcomes confirm that embedding temporal structures, adaptive objectives, and sustainability considerations into multi-objective optimization models enhances the robustness and resilience of financial planning. Overall, AFFTSO offers a practical approach for guiding resource allocation, investment planning, and risk-aware decision-making in agriculture. By bridging computational optimization with sustainability-oriented financial strategies, this framework supports the development of resilient agricultural systems that align economic performance with environmental and social objectives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains)
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31 pages, 906 KB  
Article
Sustainability as Structural Coherence Under Complex Market Dynamics: Evidence from the EU Sunflower Oilseed Value Chain
by Nicolae Istudor, Marius Constantin, Raluca Ignat, Donatella Privitera and Elena-Mădălina Deaconu
Sustainability 2026, 18(4), 1735; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18041735 - 8 Feb 2026
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 788
Abstract
Trade competitiveness can coexist with structurally fragile value chains. When chain feasibility fractures from trade competitiveness, competitiveness without coherence becomes sustainability’s opposite. This paper proposes revisiting the concept of sustainability in agri-food systems, through the lens of structural coherence, understood as the alignment [...] Read more.
Trade competitiveness can coexist with structurally fragile value chains. When chain feasibility fractures from trade competitiveness, competitiveness without coherence becomes sustainability’s opposite. This paper proposes revisiting the concept of sustainability in agri-food systems, through the lens of structural coherence, understood as the alignment between trade competitiveness, export-destination diversification, and value chain capacity. The research goal is to design and operationalize a diagnostic instrument for structural coherence testing through the triangulation of constant market share analysis (CMSA), the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI), and physical structural input–output analysis (I-OA). CMSA measures two elements: demand- and competitiveness-driven export dynamics. Export patterns are further explored to verify if there are any destination-market concentration risks (HHI). I-OA closes the loop by linking trade outcomes to internal value chain capacity and efficiency. With clear upstream–downstream segmentation, the sunflower oilseed value chain of the European Union (EU) represents an empirically fertile ground, relevant in the context of the geopolitical disruptions of Black Sea trade corridors and double-cropping dynamics with food-fuel and land-use trade-offs. Focusing on Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Romania, and Spain, which collectively account for more than 85% of EU sunflower seed production, this paper benchmarks post-2013 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) programming effects, utilized as a proxy for a period of stability, against the post-2020 window, marked by a sequence of crises. Diagnosis is facilitated through findings triangulation, enabling deriving CAP-relevant policy recommendations, aligned with country-specific binding constraints. Results show heterogeneous structurally incoherent profiles: Bulgaria suffers from growth-induced stress, France’s chain efficiency is eroded, the Hungarian chain lacks competitiveness, Romania is raw-export dependent with value-added leakage, and Spain is structurally constrained by physical limits. Policy recommendations target reorienting market-driven low value-added trade behaviors toward structurally sustainable value chain trajectories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Economics and Sustainable Agricultural Food Value Chains)
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