The pepper campaign that is currently about to close in the province of Almeria has generated a net profit of 15,700 Euro per hectare, which represents 23.79% drop compared to last year's figure, according to data supplied by Andalusia's Council of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development.
We have analysed the data provided by the Prices and Markets Observatory of Andalusia for bell peppers, taking into account the 6 to 9 month cycles, depending on whether or not it has been complemented with watermelons.
The overall average costs for this crop have been estimated at EUR 3.40 per square metre, taking into account the general and financing costs, as well as other aspects.
The average production per square metre of both cycles is estimated at around 7 kilos.
The average provisional price (including green, red, yellow and orange peppers) for the 2013/2014 season stands at 0.71 Euro per kilo, while in the previous campaign (2012/2013) the average price was of 0.78 Euro per kilo.
From this data on prices, production volumes and costs we can determine that greenhouse bell pepper growers have earned a gross profit of 4.97 Euro per square metre in the 2013/2014 season, which result in a net profit of 1.57 Euro per square metre after growing costs have been deducted. In the previous campaign, the gross return was of 5.46 Euro per square metre, and the net profit was of 2.06 Euro per square metre; this comes down to 15,700 Euro per hectare in the 2013/2014 campaign, compared to the 20,600 of the previous season.
In terms of costs, the following categories are taken into account: Seeds and seedlings (0.70 €/m²), fertilisers (0.21 €/m²), pesticides and beneficial insects (0.70 €/m² and 0.40 €/m²), water (0.07 €/m²), energy (0.08 €/m²), supplies (0.03 €/m²), wage of labourers (0.92 €/m²), family labour (0.34 €/m²), other external services (0,01 €/m²), amortisation of greenhouses, substrates, plastics, irrigation, warehouse maintenance and machinery (0.42 €/m²), other general costs (0.06 €/m²) and financial costs (0.16 €/m²).
Source: Hortoinfo