Fuchsia Costs of Production Budget

GREENHOUSE COSTS OF PRODUCTION BUDGETS

Fuchsia Hanging Baskets

Table 1. Prices received for 8-inch and 10-inch hanging baskets in the wholesale and retail markets.

Basket Size	Wholesale prices		Retail prices
	Average	Range	Average	Range
8-inch	$5.77	$3.50- $8.25	$9.86	$4.99- $12.95
10-inch	$8.00	$5.75-$11.50	$15.94	$10.00-$23.98

Table 2. Overhead costs 20,000 sq. ft. double layer, polyethylene greenhouse.

	Annual total	Cost per sq. ft.- week of bench area
Overhead labor & benefits	$63,000	$0.079
Utilities
Heating fuel (13,420 gal.)	17,200	0.022
Electricity	3,000	0.004
Telephone	1,273	0.002
Depreciation	25,000	0.031
Interest	15,000	0.019
Insurance	4,852	0.006
Repairs	12,409	0.015
Property taxes	769	0.001
Advertising	716	0.001
Dues & subscriptions	344	0.000
Travel & entertainment	1,697	0.002
Office expenses	796	0.001
Professional fees	1,000	0.001
Truck expenses & equipment	14,000	0.017
Rental
Land rental	1,565	0.002
Contributions	400	0.000
Miscellaneous	2,800	0.003
Bad debts	700	0.001
Total	$166,520	$0.208

Source: Brumfield, R.G. 1994. Production costs of New Guinea Impatiens. In: Ball Guide to New Guinea Impatiens. Eds. W. Banner and M. Klopmeyer, Geneva, IL: Ball Publishing.

Table 3. Labor inputs for Fuchsia in 8-inch and 10-inch hanging baskets

	Seconds/basket
	8-inch basket	10-inch basket
Transplant and move to greenhouse¹	56.6	60.0
Water & fertilizer applications²	35.4	66.8
Treat for insect control³	30.0	37.1
Harvest	90.0	97.8

Total seconds⁴	212.0	261.7
Total labor cost @ $8/hr.	$0.47	$0.58

¹Three rooted cutting per 8-inch basket and 4 per 10-inch basket.
²Plants are watered 3 times per week on average using 200ppm constant liquid feed.
³Pesticide is applied 6 times.
⁴Labor inputs were derived from Brumfield, 1994, Brumfield, et al., 1990 and Jenkins, 1987.

Table 4. Costs of producing Fuchsia in 10-inch hanging baskets grown on 17-inch centers for 14 weeks.

	Size of Greenhouse
	Small	Medium	Large
Variable costs
Rooted cutting¹	$1.20	$1.02	$0.96
Basket	0.83	0.71	0.66
Rooting medium	0.14	0.14	0.13
Labels	0.04	0.03	0.03
Fertilizer	0.23	0.19	0.18
Pesticide²	0.09	0.08	0.07
Sleeve	0.12	0.10	0.10
Box	0.25	0.21	0.20
Labor	0.58	0.58	0.58
Interest on variable costs	0.16	0.14	0.13

Total variable costs	$3.64	$3.20	$3.04
Overhead costs³	5.84	4.33	4.16
Loss allocation	0.50	0.40	0.38
Total per pot	$9.98	$7.92	$7.58
Sales price per pot	$8.00	$8.00	$8.00
Profit per pot	-$1.98	$0.08	$0.42

¹With 3 cuttings per pot.
²Pesticide is applied 4 times.
³Overhead costs are calculated at $0.208, $0.154, and $0.148 per square foot bench-week for small (20,000 sq. ft.), medium (100,000 sq. ft.), large(400,000 sq. ft.) greenhouses respectively.