Six hypotheses for profitable apple production based on the economic work-package within the ISAFRUIT Project

摘要

As a result of an economic analysis of apple farms in Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, and France, we identified six factors that can be influenced by apple producers that might impact the economic success of their orchard. The critical factors identified were: yield; quality of the apples (as graded results); orchard size; number of cultivars; production costs, and specialisation in organic production and/or farmgate sales. Yield and graded results were the most important factors for the economic success of an orchard. Orchard size and production costs only affected the economics of an orchard under different conditions such as the size of the apple surface, or poor yield. The number of cultivars did influence the economic success of an orchard. Apple farms under organic production regimes and farmgate sales benefited from higher prices and, therefore, had a higher chance of economic success. The main condition for success was to maintain high product prices.