Production Cost of Dates and Dates Products Packing Industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The objective of this paper is to examine the spatial distribution Patterns of labor and invested Capital in the dates and dates Packing industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, to analyze the Production Costs structure, Estimate the cost function and to compute the optimum production level that maximizes profits.
The results of the study can be summarized as:
1- The Dates packing Plants are namely located in seven regions: Riyadh, Madenah, Eastern region, Qasseim, Makkah, Aseer and Tabuk.
2- The cost of raw materials represent about 60.13% of the total Packing Costs, where direct costs pertaining to this activity represent 30.9%, while administrative and general costs stand for only 8.97%.
3 -The optimum production level is estimated at 94.14 tons. This implies that the minimum price at this level reaches a round 9.79 thousand Riyals per ton.
 
4- The production cost elasticity was estimated as 1.22, which implies that the industry is subject to diminishing returns.
5- Profit maximizing output is estimated as 125 tons. Whereas, Production elasticity at that level is estimated as 1.02, which means that the production is in the economic stage (second stage).
6- The study recommends further studies to explore the marketing desires of consumers and marketing problems, particularly in the markets of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United States and European countries, China, India and some other countries to increase the export of dates to these countries, in addition to the redistribution of economic resources used in the industry to mobilize and products including dates lead to reduced production costs of dates and thereby increase the capacity of factories to compete in the domestic and international markets.                                    
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