Cost, sales and profit structure of wild ornamental plant collection at Cameron Highlands

The ornamental plant collecting activity in Malaysia is not widely understood owing to a lack of published information concerning its operations. This paper investigates the cost and earning structure of ornamental plant collections in hill forests at Cameron Highlands, Pahang. In general, the fixed and variable cost components were distributed about equally among the total production cost. Fixed costs contribution was mainly for vehicle since simple instruments were used in the collection operations. The main variable costs were in fuel to transport collectors to and from the forest and on cigarettes. Labour cost was minimal since the collector is proprietor and no direct payment of wages was made. The average monthly and per trip profit margin were lucrative with RM297.60 and RM 126.27, respectively and the profit over sales ratio was about 95%. Apart from describing the profitability of the industry, information on the cost and sales structure is useful in appraising the ornamental plant stocks in the tropical forests, and could be used as a basis of determining state government revenues from commercial collectors should this be warranted.

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