ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF THE SWISS APPLE AND PEAR PRODUCTION

In Switzerland about 2,134 fruit-growers cultivate 4,187 ha apples and 789 ha pears. 60% of the apple and pear orchards are cultivated by fruit-growers with more than 5 ha (FAOG, 2011). The federal Research Station Agroscope in Wädenswil Switzerland works in collaboration with the organization for rural and agriculture development in Switzerland AGRIDEA to evaluate the economic situation of Swiss fruit-growers – with the project Support Obst Arbo (SOA). Growers participating to the project collect data with the field record system software “Asa-jAgrar”. Results from the SOA network are not representative for all the Swiss fruit-growers. The SOA network includes particularly growers of the eastern part of Switzerland with more than 5 ha. Important results from the SOA project for Swiss fruit-growers are: production costs and revenues, labor distribution, identification of factors that most influence the profit. A relevant result for fruit-growers participating to the project is the benchmark within the network.