Economic analysis of Pinus pinea plantations in cultivation land in Valladolid, Central Spain

Abstract

This paper reports an assessment of the economic profitability from the use of grafted stone-pines for afforestations in Valladolid, Central Spain. With this technical change, the plantations begin to yield cones at few years, saving the long unproductive youth stage of traditional stone-pine stands. Some assumptions are made, due to a lack of empirical data, about the expected yield of the grafted plantations in order to obtain their optimal rotation and profitability. As alternative land-use options, the profitability of traditional afforestations and barley crops are calculated. The cases analysed indicate that grafted plantations are competitive under a broad spectrum of essential financial parameter variations, even with the agricultural crop described in this paper. In the basic cases, expected annual return of grafted plantations is about 430-680 euros per hectare, whereas income from barley crop is about 100 euros per hectare.