Prolonged Culture Period on Production Cost and Factor Input: A Case from the Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas , Farming Industry in Yunlin County, Taiwan

Abstract The Yunlin coastal area is the largest oyster culture in Taiwan; however, the oyster farmers reported the negative impact of a prolonged oyster culture period and an increased operating cost in 2010. This study uses the translog cost function to consider the possibility of an oyster culture...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the World Aquaculture Society
Main Authors: Huang, Jung‐Fu, Lee, Jie‐Min, Sun, Po‐Chen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jwas.12085
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fjwas.12085
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jwas.12085
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Summary:Abstract The Yunlin coastal area is the largest oyster culture in Taiwan; however, the oyster farmers reported the negative impact of a prolonged oyster culture period and an increased operating cost in 2010. This study uses the translog cost function to consider the possibility of an oyster culture period extension to estimate oyster cost elasticity, own‐price elasticities, and cross‐price (substitution) elasticities, to evaluate whether the oyster farming industry in Yunlin County has economies of scale, and to assess the relationship with a substitution of inputs. We found that the Yunlin oyster culture has economies of scale, and that the oyster farmers can expand production scale to reduce costs. The own‐price elasticities of demand for inputs are less than 1, indicating fairly inelastic factor demands in oyster production. The oyster farming industry displays strong substitutability between the prolonged culture period and capital input, suggesting that the oyster farming industry is more responsive to a higher prolonged culture period cost, in terms of capital input.