This study applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to systematically identify the key factors that enhance the activation of online wholesale markets for agricultural and fishery products and to evaluate the relative importance among these factor...
This study applied the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to systematically identify the key factors that enhance the activation of online wholesale markets for agricultural and fishery products and to evaluate the relative importance among these factors. The analysis revealed four primary domains—policy, institutional/operational, technology/logistics, and participation/trading—comprising sixteen detailed sub-factors. Among the higher-level factors, “participation and trading” exhibited the highest importance, whereas “technology and logistics” showed comparatively lower priority. These findings suggest that market activation currently depends more on expanding participation, fostering active and trustworthy transactions, and strengthening relational governance than on advancing technological infrastructure.
The results further indicate that ensuring a reliable transaction environment—particularly through credit and settlement stability and robust legal and institutional support—is viewed as an urgent prerequisite for market development. This reflects persistent issues observed in practice, such as delayed payments, fraudulent transactions, and inconsistencies in settlement processes, as well as institutional instability caused by the temporary regulatory sandbox under which the online wholesale market currently operates. In addition, the high importance assigned to the expansion of intermediaries and enhanced cooperation among market participants underscores the need to address limitations in participant diversity, insufficient information-sharing mechanisms, and uneven readiness across producer organizations.
Overall, the AHP findings align closely with real-world market challenges, demonstrating that structural issues—unstable settlement systems, legal and institutional gaps, limited participant diversity, and weak cooperative frameworks—must be resolved to secure market trust and sustainability. Policy implications highlight the need for a phased approach to market activation: establishing transaction reliability, expanding stakeholder participation, strengthening institutional foundations, and subsequently advancing technological systems. These insights provide a practical roadmap for improving the online wholesale market and facilitating a transition toward a more efficient and sustainable distribution structure.