

In a two-stage fresh food supply chain composed of a supplier who operates a single variety of fresh agricultural products, multiple retailers who are concentrated in the same distribution area are sensitive to the price and freshness of the products. In addition, the deterioration rate of fresh products can be reduced by effective fresh-keeping efforts to maintain the freshness of the products. A strategy of shipping consolidation is used to solve the high-cost problem of fresh cold chain transportation. The objective is to maximize the supplier’s long-term average profit while determining the optimal product price, shipment cycle length, and preservation technology investment. For a given fresh-keeping effort, it is first proved that there exists a unique optimal product price and optimal shipment cycle length. After that, it is proved that the long-term average profit is a strictly concave function of the fresh-keeping efforts and an efficient algorithm is designed to solve the joint problem. Finally, the numerical example analysis is carried out to study how each parameter affects the optimal solution of the model through the sensitivity analysis of parameters. The results show that there is a threshold for the investment decision of preservation technology under natural conditions. At the same time, the effect of preservation investment is more obvious, the profit of suppliers will significantly increase.