MODAL SHIFT TOWARD SUSTAINABLE VEGETABLES AND FRUITS SUPPLY CHAIN FROM VIETNAM TO CHINA USING DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION

Modal shift is arguably an adequate solution to achieve sustainability goals for the supply chain (SC). It is particularly effective in economic and environmental dimensions when switching from road to sea and rail. Besides, this solution also creates a premise to take advantage of the benefits brought by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This paper investigates the modal shift aspects for vegetables and fruits (V&F) SC from Vietnam to China, which accounts for 56% of the total turnover of the global ninth-largest V&F SC. The discrete event simulation (DES) approach conducted based on historical data indicates that replacing road haulage with rail and sea haulage can cut the total cost from USD 90.1 million to USD 96.7 million, and from 15.7 to 29.4 thousand tons of CO2. Furthermore, network optimization integrated simulation demonstrates the optimal performance of a bi-modal solution. Additionally, the sensitive analysis implemented for bi-modal solutions suggests SC operators on the variations of economic and environmental indicators corresponding to fluctuations in shifted cargo volume.