Art. Shrimp production ecosystems: Studies and projections for cost management

Abstract

The current pandemic situation has forced companies to join forces to keep production active. The research characterizes the shrimp production ecosystems, as a basis for the identification of central costs in the productive operations of companies in Ecuador, taking as a reference the years 2019-2020. Supported by a qualitative documentary methodology, with documents from scientific journals scopus, web of science, scielo, latindex, among others related to the subject, the characteristics of the different stages of shrimp production were identified, from the preparation of ponds , pools, planting, transfer, fattening, until the shrimp harvest. The main findings show that the studied ecosystems handle stages associated with management and harvest, specifying the adaptation and conditioning of the soils, management of the supply of inputs and raw materials, highlighting the obtaining of shrimp larvae for their rearing and fattening. Also important are processes such as the control of salinity, temperature, oxygen, feeders, as well as manual and mechanized harvesting tasks. In all of them monetary resources are consumed that when classified they become costs. Associated resources are tracked in each phase in order to project the costs associated with the crustacean's productive cycle, for future determination under process costing methodologies. The full understanding of these ecosystems becomes the basis for the organization, determination and calculation of the cost; Useful tool in the decision-making process and in the calculation of real profitability and permanence in the markets.