ISHS Acta Horticulturae 429: XIII International Symposium on Horticultural Economics
TECHNICAL-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF 3 DIFFERENT HARVESTING CHAINS FOR ALMOND-TREES |
| Authors: | A. Caccetta, F. Giametta |
| Abstract:
This paper illustrates the results of a technical-economic analysis of almond harvesting carried out through three different harvesting chains. The first chain adopted the traditional harvesting method (beating down of almonds) whereas the second and the third chains employed two different shaking machines and nets. For these chains, however, four different levels of yearly utilization were assumed, ranging from a minimum of 100 hours to a peak of 700 hours for particular machines. For tractors, an average utilization of 1000 hours/year was considered to estimate the changes of costs with different means employed in harvesting operations. The pattern used to determine the cost of almond harvesting in the different situations taken into examination was obtained by adding constant costs (depreciation allowances, routine maintenance, insurance costs, price of sheltering premises and overhead, interest on the capital invested) to variable ones (maintenance, fuels and lubricants, wages, interest on capital paid in advance). The best results were obtained with the third harvesting chain where a higher working capacity and productivity connected with lower costs, starting from a yearly utilization of machines of about 300 hours, were recorded. | |
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