Cost and Benefit Analysis of Economic Aquatic Animals of Inshore Fishing in Trang Province

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to analyze the cost and benefit of economic aquatic animals by survey of inshore fishing in the area Had-Samran district and Palian district, Trang province during the production between October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2019. A total of 220 fishermen compose of blue crab, banana shrimp, soft cuttlefish, sand whiting and leather donax, respectively. The inshore fishermen had the highest average total revenue per year from blue crab in the amount of 259,855.83 Baht per person, followed by banana shrimp in the amount of 234,293.75 Baht per person and the smallest from leather donax was 34,950.00 Baht per person. Because of the leather donax were able to produce only during the season. When considering the average total cost of inshore fishing, consisting of fixed and variable costs. The major variable costs in inshore fisheries included labor, fuel costs and repair fees for fishing tools and equipment. It was found that the average total cost of blue crab fishermen was the highest in the amount of 214,266.81 Baht per person, due to the variable cost of fishing equipment repair and high labor cost. Resulting in the net profit of blue crab in the amount of 45,589.02 Baht per person, after the banana shrimp fishing which had the highest average total net profit of 47,268.78 Baht per person and the return on investment (ROI) was 25.27%, the highest among all 5 species of fishery products. The most problems and obstacles in inshore fishery were the problem of weather variability and the problem of illegal fishing boats, trawl fishing, were high cost of raw materials especially the issue of oil prices. Therefore, the government should promote and facilitate the technical fishermen of the coast. Production planning in this regard, fishermen should prepared a plan to prevent the fluctuation of aquaculture prices. As well as planning on the cost of production which had a tendency and direction of rising prices in the future.