Determinants of Pear Farmers’ Profits in China

Shamim Shakur and Yan Wang

Pear output and acreage in China has been increasing steadily since market deregulations were introduced in 1980s. However, like other horticulture producers, typical pear farmer in China remain smallscale operators and price-takers in both input and output markets. Moreover, farmers can be efficient in production but not in profit as the latter depends on organizational and marketing skills. We investigate profitability of China’s pear farmers in this study. We conducted annual survey on 184 Chinese pear farmers from eight leading pear-producing provinces. Our primary data contains details on pear price, production cost, pear variety and socio-economic variables. We summarize useful observations on these variables in statistical tables. Our regression results capture the relative importance of these variables in terms of their contribution to profits. Specifically, we find that choosing the “correct” pear variety and selling channel is more important than many other perceived determinants of profit.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.21102/jbpr.2016.12.112.12