The Cost of Production of Giant Clam Seed Tridacna gigas

The costs of providing giant clam seed in Australia are examined for alternative annual volumes of production. Considerable economies of scale in production are available, both in relation to labor costs and non-labor costs (mostly capital costs). The fall in per-unit cost of producing giant clam seed is considerable when annual production is expanded from 100,000 to 500,000 seed clams per year. At 10% rate of interest, the unit cost per clam seed falls from $1.43–$2.04 at a production level of 100,000 to $0.41–$0.55 at a production level of 500,000. Per-unit operating costs also fall. They decline from $1.01–$1.22 to $0.29–$0.35. This suggests that there are likely to be cost economies in having large centralized hatcheries.