Returns and costs in sugar beet production and crop enterprise before and after recent CAP reforms.

摘要

The cost structures of sugarbeet cultivation were analysed within the framework of the 'Joint Project on environmental effects in sugarbeet cultivation' in Germany. Future prospects on the effects of the sugar market reform were given by a comparative static comparison if no adaptation strategies were be introduced. Simultaneously, costs and returns of the whole crop enterprise were examined. In sugarbeet production, declining sugarbeet prices lead to strong losses in returns. In combination with increased input prices, those losses reduced returns to management. Cost differences between successful and less successful farms were primarily due to differences in direct and operating costs. Within these cost groups, expenses for fertilizer as well as for labour and machinery showed significant differences between successful and less successful farms. At the whole crop enterprise level, rising prices for other agricultural products compensated for declined sugarbeet prices and increased input prices. Significant cost differences were recorded between successful and less successful farms with operating costs.