Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / The objective of this thesis is to determine if contract farming of fresh strawberries
in Oceanside California is financially feasible. This is being considered as an alternative to
managing the 185 acre fresh strawberry farm. The farming business is owned by a large
fresh fruit marketing firm. As an independent custom grower I would not be subject to the
same constraints as the marketing firm. No changes to management structure or product
quality would be necessitated by this change.
Assumptions for this study are specific to operating requirements for producing
winter strawberries in North San Diego County in California. The cultural practices
described and inputs used are considered to be usual for a well-managed commercial farm.
The cost and returns are based upon actual historical data and representative of similar if
not exact cultural practices and material inputs.
The conceptual model used to guide the development of this study was taken from a
generic feasibility study framework. It served as a controlled process to analyze the
situation and determine the financial outcomes. The economic and financial viability
analysis includes costs and returns per acre, monthly cash costs, sensitivity analysis, and
overall profitability. The method used to assess the dimensions of viability was to weight
them by evaluating key characteristics for relative strengths and weaknesses. The
recommendation based upon this assessment is that the overall viability of the proposal is
more than 80% and therefore merits the development of a comprehensive business plan.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/19753 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Vargas, Ronald G. |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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