Jk. Harper et al., Economic evaluation of improved mechanical harvesting systems for eastern thornless blackberries, APPL ENG AG, 15(6), 1999, pp. 597-603
Three blackberry production systems which combine a mechanical harvester em
ploying a new shaking principle with open trellis designs (V-, Y-, and rota
table Y-trellises) were evaluated to determine profit potential. Given a si
ngle cultivar planting of 4.7 ha and current fresh-market prices, all three
machine harvest systems are profitable. When ;compared to a hand-harvested
I-trellis, fresh-market packouts of from 72 to 132% of total yield would b
e required for the machine harvesting systems to have equal profitability T
he relative profitability, of the I-trellis, however, is very sensitive to
increases in hand-harvest cost and decreases in fresh-market price. A 20% f
all in price would reduce breakeven packout for the mechanical harvester to
27 to 70%. A $0.30/kg increase in hand harvest cost would reduce breakeven
packout to 29 to 73%. The machine-harvesting systems are profitable under
a greater range of price and yields than the 1-trellis. Machine-harvesting
systems are profitable at prices as low as $0.48 to $0.67/kg, while hand-ha
rvesting systems need prices of at least $1.42 to $1.55/kg to cover costs.
Machine-harvesting systems are profitable at yields as low as 13 to 31% of
expected yield for fresh market, while hand-harvesting systems need yields
of 44 to 49% to breakeven. Low harvest cost indicates that machine-harvesti
ng systems would also be profitable for processing growers. Hand-harvesting
systems are not profitable under current processing prices.