Return to search

Economic Assessment of Organic, Eco-Friendly, and Conventional Peach Production Methods in Northern Utah

Fruit producers in Northern Utah face several challenges to their production, urbanization, decreased availability of agricultural land, and competition from domestic producers and imports. As consumers are willing to pay premiums for foods differentiated by production method, such as eco-friendly and organic, conversion to these methods may increase the profitability of fruit growing operations.
This study found that consumers in Northern Utah are willing to pay a premium for peaches grown using organic and eco-friendly production practices over conventionally grown peaches. The study also found that of the three methods of peach production examined (conventional, eco-friendly, and organic), organic had the highest average grower net returns and had the lowest associated risk, while conventional peach production had the potential for the highest net returns. These results may guide producers when making orchard management decisions and in the profitability assessment of alternative production methods.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-5024
Date01 May 2015
CreatorsKnudsen, Trevor D.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

Page generated in 0.0018 seconds