Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 2 of 2 items for :
- Author or Editor: Robert S. Sowell x
- Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science x
Abstract
Economic efficiencies were greatest in peak sales periods in surveyed floricultural firms selling both to retail florists, and mass markets. Efficiency decreased in intermediate and slack sales periods. About the same procedures were followed in each time period, but sales were reduced in intermediate, and slack periods. Surveyed firms selling to mass markets sold bedding plants during peak periods which required no variable labor or capital marketing inputs; thus, they were more technically efficient than firms selling to retail florists during the peak period. Economies of size were found in the retail florist channel but not in the mass market channel. Maximum economic efficiency was reached at a smaller size by firms selling to mass markets, indicating that the mass market channel was more competitive in the marketing function than was the retail florist channel. Large differences in technical efficiency were found within groups, indicating that increased profit could be made by the least efficient firms adopting the efficient technology of the most efficient firms within the same group. Within groups, the most efficient firms utilized more fully their fixed inputs than did the least efficient, and were thus able to expend a reduced percentage of sales on variable inputs. A persistant problem for the least efficient firms, especially during slack periods, was a delivery cost larger than that of the most efficient firms resulting from an increase in distance and number of stops.
Abstract
The total costs of producing Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum, Thunb.) were developed for firms with 1,800 m2, 9,000 m2, and 36,000 m2 of production area. Economies of size existed in 2 market channels (mass market and full service florist). The total costs of Easter lilies to producers in the mass market marketing channel, including the cost of 6.31% bulbs that did not emerge, were $2.08, $1.83, and $1.63 per pot for the 1.800 m2, 9,000 m2, and 36,000 m2 firms, respectively. Costs were $0.48, $0.36, and $0.32 higher per pot for the florist producers than for the mass market producers for the small, medium, and large firms, respectively.