There is a lack of information on the economics of production of hot pepper in CARICOM. Most of the available data relate to studies carried out in late 1980s and early 1990s in the Eastern Caribbean States and show that cost of production vary considerably from one country to another.

However, the indication from the studies (CARDI 1992) in Antigua was that net Crop Income could be attractive.

In a recent validation trial of a hot pepper production system carried out in Barbados, an analysis of the direct costs of production showed a loss of Bds$4,194.00. Labour was scarce and expensive and this was reflected in the largest input of $15,249 (53.1%) into labour costs. The three operations which caused the high costs of labour were manual picking and grading, manual weed control and transplanting with supplying comprising 19.37%, 18.99% and 7.18%, respectively of the total direct costs of production. For full details refer to Table 3 in the CARDI Barbados Annual Technical Report.

The cost of materials comprised 30.52% of the total and of this the largest component was the cost of the seedlings representing 14.99% of the total direct costs. Mechanized operations cost was 16.42% of the total. The cost of the irrigation system represented 20% of the full costs assuming that its life span was 5 years. Transportation in the field and as part of marketing made up 4.046% of the total. It was therefore obvious that the components of the costs of production, which needed to be decreased in order to lower the costs were:

• The labour for transplanting and supplying
• Manual weed control
• Picking and grading by hand
• Seedlings and
• Transportation

The direct costs of production of 1.0 kg of hot pepper berries was Bds$2.57 (1.17/lb). Labour comprised 53.06% of these costs. Labour was spent mainly on picking and grading (19.22%), weed control (18.99%) and transplanting (7.18%). The selling price was Bds$2.47/kg ($1.00/lb). A loss of 10˘/kg was incurred. Further work should target the decrease in the costs of weed control; picking and grading and transplanting along with an increase in productivity. This compared very unfavourably with EC $0.67 reported for Antigua and EC$ 0.71 for St. Lucia.

It is clear that more definitive studies are needed.