Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply an analysis of complex networks to empirically research international agricultural commodity trade and countries’ trading relations. The structure of global agricultural commodity trade is quantitatively described and analysed. Design/methodology/approach Based on statistical physics and graph theory, the research paradigm of a complex network, which has sprung up in the last decade, provides us with new global perspective to discuss the topic of international trade, especially agricultural commodity trade. In this paper, the authors engage in the issue of countries’ positions in international agricultural commodity trade using the latest complex network theories. The authors at first time introduce the improved bootstrap percolation to simulate cascading influences following the breaking down of bilateral agricultural commodity trade relations. Findings On a mid-level structure, countries are classified into three communities that reflect the structure of the “core/periphery” using the weighted extremal optimisation algorithm and the coarse graining process. On a micro-level, countries’ rankings are provided with the aid of network’s node centralities, which presents world agricultural commodity trade as a closed, imbalanced, diversified and multi-polar development. Originality/value The authors at first time introduce the improved bootstrap percolation to simulate cascading influences following the breaking down of bilateral agricultural commodity trade relations.

中文翻译：

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国家在国际农产品贸易中的地位

目的本文的目的是对复杂的网络进行分析，以实证研究国际农产品贸易和国家之间的贸易关系。对全球农产品贸易的结构进行了定量描述和分析。设计/方法/方法基于统计物理学和图论，近十年来涌现的复杂网络的研究范式为我们讨论国际贸易，尤其是农产品贸易的主题提供了新的全球视野。在本文中，作者使用最新的复杂网络理论来研究国家在国际农产品贸易中的地位问题。作者首先介绍了改进的自举渗透，以模拟双边农产品贸易关系破裂后的级联影响。调查结果在中等水平的结构上，国家使用加权的极值优化算法和粗粒度过程被划分为三个反映“核心/外围”结构的社区。在微观层面上，借助于网络的节点中心性来提供国家排名，这将世界农产品贸易呈现为封闭，不平衡，多样化和多极化的发展。独创性/价值作者首次介绍了改进的自举渗透，以模拟双边农产品贸易关系破裂后的级联影响。