Start-up costs and marketing methods have a huge effect on the profitability of high tunnel enterprises.
That’s one of the conclusions of a study funded by New York Farm Viability Institute, reported on by Chris Wien, high tunnel team leader in the Department of Horticulture in the Smart Marketing newsletter, published by the Department of Applied Economics and Management.
The nearly three-fold difference in net income from tomatoes is largely due to differences in marketing: tomatoes from Farm A [net = $0.57 per square foot] went to a wholesale auction market; those from Farm B [net = $1.44 per square foot] were sold retail at a farmers market.