Abstract
Greenhouse tomato cultivation plays an important role in Sicily, being the primary production area in Italy, due to its favorable pedo-climatic conditions that permit extra-seasonal productions. In Sicily, more than half of greenhouse tomato production is derived from the Province of Ragusa on the southeastern coast, where especially cherry tomato typologies are cultivated. Over the last decade, the Ragusa Province has registered a decrease both in terms of greenhouse tomato area and harvested production due to several structural problems that would require restructuring of the tomato supply chain. Thus, since recognition of real costs and profitability of tomato growing is a vital issue, both from the perspective of the farm, as well as from that of the entrepreneur, the aim of this paper was to analyze the economic sustainability of Sicilian greenhouse cherry tomato cultivated in the Ragusa Province. In particular, an economic analysis on 30 representative farms was conducted in order to estimate production costs and profits of greenhouse cherry tomato. According to our results, the lack of commercial organization, which characterizes the small farms we surveyed, determines low contractual power for farmers and, consequently, low profitability.
Highlights
Indigenous of Latin America and introduced into Europe at the beginning of sixteenth century, nowadays tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world [1,2]
The average total production cost of cherry tomato cultivated under greenhouses of 30 surveyed farms was equal to 20.87 €/m2, of which 78.1% was represented by variable costs (Table 2)
Is the first Italian production area of greenhouse tomato and more than half the production comes from the Ragusa Province on the southeastern coast, where cherry tomato typologies are especially cultivated
Summary
Indigenous of Latin America and introduced into Europe at the beginning of sixteenth century, nowadays tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world [1,2]. 4.8 million hectares, denoting, during the last ten years (2012–2003), an increase of 17.3% [3] This increase was due essentially to the African (+34.9%) and Asian (+30.8%) continents, which in 2012, represented, respectively, 21.0% and 58.8% of world tomato areas, while Europe (−23.8%) and America (−11.6%) denoted a significant decrease with respect to 2003. In the last few years, tomato is cultivated, increasingly, in new-producer countries to the detriment of the traditional growing areas. This occurs, firstly, due to the low costs of human labor and for the continuous investments that, in recent years, have affected, cultivation techniques, and commercial and marketing strategies, improving the tomato supply chain management [4,5]. With regards to world tomato production, in the last ten years, it increased by 35.4%, reaching a value of 161.8 million tons in 2012
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