Discussions
We found that large-sized farms are more productive because the farmers generally have more knowledge and
experience, and have the advantage of economies of scale. However, there is little difference in average yield
between medium-sized and large-sized farms. In addition, medium-sized farms have the lowest logistics cost. This
implies that the large-sized farmer invests more in material handling equipment, labor and vehicles in order to
achieve high productivity, whereas the medium-sized farmer invests less but is able to maintain high productivity, so
that the average logistics cost per product is less.
In terms of the relationship of logistics cost and the size of farms, as shown in Table 4, if depreciation and loss is
taken into account in the logistics cost, we found that small-sized and large-sized farms have higher logistics costs,
whereas the logistics cost of medium-sized farms is the least. Farmers main logistics cost is from material handling
activities: harvest, postharvest, and grading. Since most farmers hire outside labor to perform these activities, the
labor cost accounts for the highest portion of the material handling cost. In addition, the value of loss of harvesting
is the second highest portion. It is difficult to reduce the labor cost due to lack of readily available labor, but the loss
of harvesting can be avoided by using efficient harvesting technology. Transportation cost is composed of fuel cost,
maintenance cost, depreciation cost, driver salaries and the value of losses during delivery. Depreciation and the
value of loss during delivery account for the main proportion of these transportation costs. Farmers can reduce their
losses during delivery by using more appropriate containers or packaging. There is no temperature-controlled supply