Abstract
This study aimed at determining the scale efficiency in tambaqui production in earth ponds developed in the metropolitan region of Manaus-AM. Eleven fish farms were analyzed and were sampled data regarding its characteristics, productive data, disbursement, infrastructure value and production value, in order to calculate the total operational cost and profitability indexes. For the DEA was applied the VRS/BCC (variable return of scale) model with input orientation, using three inputs (total operational cost, feed value, and depreciation, all in BRL($) per kilo) and one output (annual gross revenue, in BRL($) per hectare). The study showed that 80% of the fish farms (DMUs) had increasing returns to scale, with scale efficiencies lower than 65%, affected by lack of profitability, low technical and marketing knowledge, high production cost (R$ 4.50 kg-1 ) and low average sales price (lower than R$ 5.00 kg-1).
Highlights
Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is the most produced native species in Brazil (IBGE, 2014) and its farming is done mainly in earth ponds, due to the high plankton production found in these systems (Costa, 2013)
The study showed that 80% of the fish farms (DMUs) had increasing returns to scale, with scale efficiencies lower than 65%, affected by lack of profitability, low technical and marketing knowledge, high production cost (R$ 4.50 kg-1) and low average sales price
The production of curumim and roelo is carried out concomitantly, that is, the animals start with 0.5 g and after a mean cycle of 218 ± 57 days, two-thirds of the animals are ready for sale in the curumim standard
Summary
Tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is the most produced native species in Brazil (IBGE, 2014) and its farming is done mainly in earth ponds, due to the high plankton production found in these systems (Costa, 2013). The profitability of this production presents great variability owing to the technical and marketing characteristics inherent to the activity (Gomes et al, 2006; Costa et al, 2016; Pedroza Filho et al, 2016). The lack of profitability is caused by the low sale price and the high costs (Gandra, 2010; Pedroza Filho et al, 2016). The producer is a price taker; it is up to him to make the right combination of production factors to reduce costs, that is, to be efficient (Sabbag and Costa, 2015). One of the ways to reduce costs is to increase the productive scale aiming to optimize.
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