Evaluation of the balance point and profitability applied to marine shrimp production systems in Ceará State, Brazil

Abstract

Shrimp exports in Brazil made a revolution on seafood Brazilian trade balance. Since 2001, this balance showed a  superavit due the consolidation of cultivated Brazilian shrimp sales in the main world markets, such as United States and  Europe. However, in the last three years, this culture has dropping its production because of trade modifications in Brazil and  worldwide. In order to review their strategies, shrimp producers had better planning and managing their production costs. One  of the ways to analyze production costs was through the balance point and profitability. The main goal of this study was to  apply the concept of balance point to marine shrimps systems of production in Ceará State, Brazil, and trying to demonstrate,  in the current market situations, which would be the best chances of planning production and increasing the profitability  and competitive advantages of shrimp producing units. The results have suggested that the shrimp farming units analyzed  would have better profitability, if production planning would be based on intermediate shrimp densities (35 shrimps/m²) and  minimum harvest weight of 9.56 g. Studies on economic stability of future shrimp farming projects in Brazil should approach  such exogenous factors as selling prices, inputs and interest rates, with the aim of making available information on planning  and management issues.