Analysis of fresh market tomatoes production cost in different production scales at Caçador/SC region

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the economic viability of tomato production in different typical production farms at Caçador region (SC): small scale (1.25 ha) and large scale (27.27 ha). For each group it was collected technical, commercial and financial data from the last summers seasons 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13. The methodology to collection primary data, like costs and revenues, is the Panel, which involves getting a group of producers that represents a typical farm in the region. There was collected the farm Inventory as well as the value of the investments to produce, the operational and total costs of production and the average yield from each season. In the end, costs were faced with the revenue. From these data it was possible to evaluate and compare the profitability of small and large scale production. In general, it was observed that in the accumulated of this three summer harvest, the revenue obtained in both production scales was sufficient to pay the operational and total costs of production. However, the large tomato area allowed better reduction in fixed costs, like administrative and wage compensation for services provided. In the balance of this three seasons, the total cost of production, per hectare, of the small scale was 8.2% higher than the large scale. The research ends by recommending that the small scale producers seek arrangements, such as associations, which enables them to share machines and the infrastructure. Thereby, these producers would also have typical benefits from larger scale farms, such as economy in total cost of production. It is believed that the breakdown of the cost worksheet that was present in this study, as well as the profitability indicators calculated also contributes to other studies that approach, for example, the risks in tomato crops.