Evaluación técnica y económica del pepino y el pimentón como alternativas al tomate bajo invernadero

Abstract

n order to find alternatives to greenhouse tomato production, a technical and economic evaluation of five cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) hybrids and thirteen sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) hybrids was carried out using semi-commercial crops. The economic evaluation compared five projects: long shelf-life tomato, regular and European cucumber, and red and gourmet sweet pepper, using three different commercial scenarios. The first two considered the financial results when price and productivity variations (from -50 up to 50% with respect to the reference value) were applied. The third one analyzed price paid variations as a function of the customer. For each crop, the highest production came from the regular cucumber Caman, the European cucumber Azabache and the gourmet sweet pepper Taranto with 8.0, 8.5 and 7.9 kg m-2, respectively. The red sweet pepper hybrids showed significant differences, with AF6529 displaying the highest productivity with 4.8 kg m-2. The economic evaluation indicated that the gourmet sweet pepper, long shelflife tomato and European cucumber are feasible projects, with the gourmet sweet pepper project having the highest returns. The initial investment of COP $187.552.083 is recovered in two years, obtaining the desired profitability while generating a surplus of COP $60.909.707. It is necessary to increase the productivity of the regular cucumber and the red sweet pepper in order to make them more competitive in wholesale markets; however, if the quality of the products is improved while offering constant volumes, it is possible to gain access to more profitable markets.