Analysis of the costs of organic agricultural production using a total or absorbing cost approach in times of the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen the agrarian economy and food security

Abstract

The production and export of bananas is the main activity of the province of El Oro, which is generated by the fact that the economy of the province is always on the rise due to the great demand for this fruit abroad, but the recent pandemic by COVID-19 harmed to this agricultural sector. The objective of this work was to determine the effects caused by the COVID 19 pandemic on banana exports through an analysis of the cost of production and profitability of the banana box during the health crisis. For this, a narrative, descriptive, analytical, and non-experimental methodological design was achieved, the same, which allowed collecting information on banana production during the pandemic without manipulating any study variable. The findings showed that there were declines in exports, the material for the shipping process took time to arrive, the price of a box of bananas fell, there were paralysis of ports, and a number of difficulties that prevented them from continuing to work normally, so Therefore, its level of profitability was significantly affected, in the same way, its productive performance decreased compared to previous years, so the associativity strategy had to be implemented to reduce operating costs.

Key Words: Cost analysis, agricultural production, agricultural economics, food security