SEDAGHAT R.
Abstract
Pistachio is the most important agricultural crop cultivated extensively in Iran's tropics. The country earns sizable income from Pistachio export. To be globally competitive, the production and processing of Pistachio should be economically viable especially in the long run.
This paper aims to analyze the economic viability of production and processing of Pistachio in Iran both in short run and long run. Necessary data were collected through personal interview of randomly selected 100 sample farmers and 10 sample exporters/ processors in Kerman province in the crop year 2003-04.
Net returns over variable costs, Net returns over total costs, Returns per Rial of variable costs, Returns per Rial of total costs were calculated and also the Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) , Benefit- Cost Ratio (BCR) and Break-even techniques were employed in this study.
The results show that production of three major varieties of pistachio was not economically viable in longrun but viable in short run. However, the servicing and export terminals are economically viable both in short run and long run.
Key words:
economic viability; productivity; break-even; long run; short run; variable costs; fixed costs ;cash flow.