This publication is part of the R&D&I project PLEC2022-009405, funded by MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/ PRTR.
In its commitment to digitalization and innovation applied to the agri-food sector, CE-COMMERCE is developing a project aimed at optimizing citrus marketing through advanced models for analyzing freshness, demand, and dynamic prices.
The project’s main objective is to provide producers and marketers with an objective decision-support tool capable of estimating the evolution of product freshness and its direct impact on commercial value, integrating physiological variables of the fruit, visual indicators, and market factors.
To this end, the technical team has developed an innovative methodology based on the use of the Color Index (CI) as a quantifiable variable of ripening and freshness, calculated from the processing of digital images captured directly in the field using mobile devices. These images are taken of both the tree and the fruit, allowing for the objective characterization of the external color evolution of citrus fruits without the need for complex instrumentation.
The CI analysis is complemented by models that incorporate the appearance of defects and the evolution of global demand, allowing the construction of a dynamic freshness function that reflects the product’s actual commercial status over time.
Based on this information, a dynamic pricing model is developed that adjusts the value of the citrus fruit according to its estimated freshness and the market context, facilitating the definition of adaptive commercial strategies, channel segmentation, and the anticipation of sales or withdrawal decisions.
The results generated by the model are integrated into a digital platform, where users can visualize the evolution of freshness, commercial decision ranges, estimated prices under different demand scenarios, and the information necessary to optimize product management, reducing losses and improving the profitability of the citrus value chain.
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