Profitability of Pineapple Production (Ananas comosus) among Smallholders in Malaysia

Abstract

Pineapple is a tropical fruit with high nutritive value and fine flavour. It has been an encouraging potential of commercial crop for income and export earnings in Malaysia. Despite its popularity, there are little empirical data on the costs and profitability of its production in Malaysia. Therefore, this study attempts to determine profitability of pineapple production in Johor which focuses on calculation of the production costs incurred, the income earned, as well as analyse the feasibility of growing pineapples among smallholders. A simple random sampling technique was used to obtain information from 191 respondents using random sampling. Data from interviews were then analysed using descriptive statistics and budgetary technique. Results indicated that majority of the farmers were males, middle aged, engaged full time in pineapple production, possessed small scale farm and had a background in pineapple farming for at least twenty years. Most respondents cultivated Josapine variety and grew pineapple on a peat soil. The result showed that the pineapple production business is profitable and returning more to the farmer than the original investment in terms of purchased inputs as indicated by benefit cost ratio of 1.72. Additionally, the result of regression analysis revealed pineapple production was significantly affected by working experience, planting area, pineapple variety, pineapple price and cost of inputs.