Analysis of costs and competitiveness in avocado production in Michoacán, Mexico

Abstract

The process of globalization has forced avocado producers in Michoacán to improve their competitiveness, be more efficient and control their production costs to adapt to market demands. Cost accounting provides data to monitor the activities of a company, provides tools for making corrective decisions and achieve goals, to maintain or increase profits production costs, profitability and competitiveness of three representative production units (URP) avocado, two of export and for domestic market in Michoacán, in 2013. The USDA’s proposed methodology was used were estimated adjusted to analyze the agricultural profitability in Mexico. To recover the direct information of the technical coefficients, yields, prices of inputs and products, the technique of producer panels was used. The results indicate that the URP smaller scale, which allocates 100% of its production to the domestic market, presented the costs of higher production and a return of $51 655.10 ha-1, compared to the URP larger scale, which spend between 80 and 90% of its production export, with yields of $243 779.10 and $217 570.80 ha-1. In addition, the costs of private resources confirmed the high proportion saved by variable costs, mainly pesticides and fertilizers. Avocado production in Michoacán was a profitable activity in 2013; however, only the URPs that export are guaranteed their economic viability and long-term permanence.