Chapter II

Related Literature

This literature review is essential to the study because it demonstrates the

significance of pandemic-travel restrictions: Impact on Marketing Investment Level-

Decisions and Profitability of Vegetable Retailers. This is the management measures in

response to agricultural supply demands and the COVID-19 pandemic's consequences

similarly; this section will provide more information and understanding of the influence

of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel restrictions marketing investment and profitability

of vegetable retailers.

Travel Restrictions

Travel Expenses

According to Michelle Scott (2021) travel expenses are costs associated with

traveling for the purpose of conducting business-related activities. Reasonable travel

expenses can generally be deducted by the business when employees incur costs while

traveling away from home specifically for business purposes.

Profitability

Profitability is the degree to which the value of a farm’s production exceeds the

cost of the resources used to produce it. An absolute measure of profitability is net farm

income. If the opportunity costs for the farmer’s own labor and capital are subtracted, the
remainder is profit and return to management. And according to Edwards, P. Duffy,

(2014) positive profit means that the farm has produced crops and livestock that have a

greater value than the seed, fertilizer, fuel, labour, feed, and other inputs that were used

up in their production. Profits are also highly correlated with farm size. To compare the

profitability of farms of different sizes, several ratios are used. The asset turnover ratio is

equal to the gross revenue for the entire farm divided by the value of its total assets. It

reflects the efficiency with which land, machinery, livestock, breeding and other

resources are turned into food, fuel, and fiber. Another common ratio is the rate of return

on assets (ROA), which is a measure of how much the total assets earned, on a

percentage basis.

Quality of produce

According to Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr (2012). The quality of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable

products includes a combination of attributes, such as appearance, texture, and flavor, as

well as nutritional and safety aspects that determine their value to the consumer.

Nutritionally, fruit and vegetables represent a good source of vitamins, minerals, and

dietary fiber, and fresh-cut produce satisfies consumer demand for freshly prepared,

convenient, healthy food.

Labour Shortage

According to Statistical Journal of the United Nations ECE (1999). A shortage of

labour of a particular type in a particular labour market which may be said to exist when

the number of vacancies has been (or is expected to be) above a level considered to
represent 'normal' turnover at the prevailing wages and working conditions for an

extended period.

Distance

Travel distance means the distance from any point in the floor area to any exit

measured along the path or egress except that when the floor areas are sub-divided into

rooms, used singly or of rooms and served by suite corridors and passage, the travel

distance may be measured from the corridor entrance of such rooms or suites to the

nearest staircase or verandah having access to the street.  Komal Shah Mike Whelan

(2021).

High costs of Transportation

According to Dawn Russell et. al. (2014). During the 1990s and the first part of

the 21st century, the high availability and low cost of transportation services relative to

the cost of holding inventory encouraged organizations to emphasize fast, frequent

delivery to customers through such means as just-in-time delivery. But things have

changed dramatically in the last decade, and companies increasingly are calling such

long-standing strategies into question. The "game changers" are volatile, escalating oil

prices and an imbalance of supply and demand for freight transport services. These

realities have led to high transportation costs—high enough to cause companies to make

transport-driven shifts in their supply chain strategies.

Global travel restrictions

Even before the Covid 19 pandemic came to our world there were already

infectious diseases that also brought about change in our society along with the trade of

vegetables or food. There were also travel restrictions when the H1N1 virus spread. One

of the things that was affected was the delivery and existence of the Travel band due to

the protection of countries from the virus that spread during 2009.

According to the source in the recent 2009 H1N1 pandemic (H1N1pdm), control

measures included travel bans to/from Mexico, the screening of travelers on entry into

airports, and travel advisories against non-essential travel to Mexico. The aggregation of

data on the H1N1pdm therefore represents an unprecedented opportunity to calibrate and

validate a modeling approach to the global spread of epidemics that integrates detailed

information on human mobility and travel. In the present work, we use the Global

Epidemic and Mobility model (GLEaM) that, fully integrating high resolution

demographic and mobility data, allows the calibration to the H1N1pdm data of the

invasion during the early stage of the epidemic and the exploration of hypothetical

scenarios in which reductions in the international travel to/from Mexico with different

timing and magnitude are considered. Interventions acting on mobility are found to be

scarcely efficient in delaying the invasion process of the pandemic. This computational

evidence can be explained within a simplified theoretical framework in terms of a phase

transition between invasion and non-invasion dynamics of the metapopulation system,

where the critical value is crucially affected by the topological fluctuations of the

mobility network.
Strategies of Travel Restrictions in Agriculture during Pandemic

The current Covid-19 pandemic has impacted tourism industry the hardest and

has steered a total standstill in the multibillion industries, causing economic crisis

globally. This paper attempts to assess the impacts and management strategies of

agritourism in Brunei. Due to the constant evolvement of knowledge and management

strategies during this unprecedented time, qualitative approach using semi-structured

interviews was deemed appropriate for this research. This paper focuses on agritourism

farms in Brunei during Covid-19 to study the implication and contingency plans to divert

such crises. According to Wee Lee Chin(2021) the findings from this study indicates that

strategies employed by the Brunei agritourism farms were (1) the diversification of

economic activities towards product innovation and agribusiness expansion to mitigate

tourism revenue loss; (2) digital transformation such as, contact tracing app, the

introduction of virtual tourism as well as the use of social media to promote agritourism

as lower-risk tourism; (3) adaptive human resources strategy by encouraging community

capacity building such as up skilling and training of local farmers to stimulate new

agritourism skills and establish more future-ready workforce. The strategies adopted by

the agritourism farms in Brunei could provide lessons to neighbouring countries and the

ASEAN region to prepare for a crisis-resistant agritourism in the future.

Travel Restrictions

The Pandemic-travel restriction affects not only the other business like clothing,

amusement parks and more but also it affects how the retailers of foods make their

decisions. There are evidences that suggest that the restriction of travels led to significant

changes in vegetables prices (Hirvonen, K. et. al. 2020). The prices of vegetables change

because of additional criteria and behavior of the trades. It affects how retailers make

decisions on how they will profit and will not lose more money.

In addition, According to the studies of Hai-ying, G. et. al. (2020), the pandemic

has an impact on all stages of vegetable supply chain especially in the sales stage that

leads to lower the price of vegetables and become a serious losses for the farmers. As the

vegetable price hikes, it is more likely to have fewer sales. With that, the sellers need to

lower the price to sell their vegetables and suffer losses. To make a wiser decision, the

sellers or retailers need to make strategies to at least gain even little profits.