8 Cost-Benefit S ummary

Economic/Financial A nalyses of M ariculture Park Operations

Presented below is an economic evaluation of the mariculture park in Panabo City, Davao (PCMP) with an aggregate area of 1,075 hectares, 153 units of cages built in 2006 (marginalized groups, 17 cages and private investor group, 136 cages). The average number of cages operated by the marginalized group was 2 to 3 units; while the private investor group averages 34 cages per unit. Financial analyses are shown in Table 1.

Based on the above, the PCMP operations are economically viable. The cost structures differ as well but the proportion of the costs are much lower in PCMP.
Operations with 1–3 cages are the most affected.
Operating with more than 20 cages, this time, is very profitable in PCMP. Total expenses stand at 49 percent of sales leaving a very comfortable net profit margin of 51 percent, valued at Philippine Peso (PHP) 287,776 per cage, corresponding to an ROI of 112 percent per cycle. On an annual basis, an operator in PCMP can expect a return of 224 percent per annum.

The best results, however, is still operating between 10–20 cages or an average of 15 cages. Total expenses stand at 57 percent of sales resulting to an average net profit return of 46 percent of sales after depreciation has been adjusted. The corresponding average net profit per cage stands at PHP 230,507 but the return on investment stands at 117 percent, 5 percent higher

Table 1. Results of financial analysis in PCMP for milkfish culture.

Table 2. Results of financial analysis of grouper culture in PCMP.

than investments in more than 20 cages. On an annual basis, the ROI for an investor stands at 234 percent.
In the case of grouper, two cases were noted in PCMP using 1 cage per operation. Compared to the other mariculture projects, returns in grouper culture are favorable considering the cost structure given in Table 2 above.
The increased share of other operating expenses is noticeable, particularly with the additional floaters and nets, as well as transportation costs, but the selling price at PHP 350 per kilo more than compensates for the increased costs. Overall, average net profit per cage is PHP 286,363 (37 percent) with an average return on investment of 47 percent. On an annual basis this corresponds to 94 percent per annum.