break-even point, calculations, investment, mushroom growing
Abstract
Mushroom growing, as a branch of agriculture has been rapidly developing in recent years. Emphasis is particularly put on the application of technology that can accelerate the production process to increase yield and to minimize human labor invested in production. Mushroom production was analyzed on a farm with a monthly production of 15,000 kg or an annual production of 180,000 kg. The calculations were based on the defined difference between the costs of manual labor and machine service invested in the mushroom growing room. The break-even point or the coverage point was set at 83,414 kg, referring to the production level with the same manual and machine work costs. Machine refilling for mushroom production above the mentioned amount is more profitable, while manual refilling is economically efficient within the production below the determined amount. On the analyzed farm, applied machine work led to the lowering of costs for 167,778.00 HRK per year. Purchase of machinery requires a total investment of 1,207,500 HRK with the return of 7.2 years.
