Economic analysis of soybean production in Vojvodina

Abstract

For successful management, in particular for business decision making, it is not enough to know merely the production characteristics of soybean production. It is also necessary to know economic characteristics, since improvement of production mainly depends on the achieved economic effects. Soybean was grown in Vojvodina on 118,062 ha (on average in 1999-2008), which makes 7.5 % of province's arable land and accounts for 93 % of total soybean area in Serbia. The obtained yield is higher than average yields in Europe and the world. The average cost of soybean production in 2009 in agricultural companies was 677 €/ha, while the average cost of production on family farms (the type of farms which pay harvesting service being the dominant type) was 329 €/ha. With the selling price of 0.28 €/kg the achieved profit for agricultural companies was 167 €/ha. Farmers' work contributed 33 % of the achieved income of family farms (594 €/ha). Economic results highly depend on the chosen moment of realisation (sale). In conditions of significant price fluctuation, producers' readiness to wait for higher price could assure significant income increase. .

Keywords

• costs
• income
• profit
• soybean
• total revenue
• yield