TABLE 11.--Variation in the Cost of Packing and Selling Florida GRAPEFRUIT
 4/5 Bushel Wirebound Boxes by Volume Groups, 41 Packinghouses, 1962-63.

 Number of Boxes Handled (1-3/5 bu. Equivalent)
Cost per 1-3/5 Bushel Under 200,000 400,000 All
 200,000 399,999 and Over Volume
 - Number of Packinghouses- - -
Under -$1.50 2 5 8 15
$1.50 1.59 1 2 3 6
 1.60 1.69 2 -- -- 2
 1.70 1.79 1 1 1 3
 1.80 1.89 1 -- -- 1
 1.90 1.99 1 1 -- 2
 2.00 and over 3 -- 3
 Total 11 9 12 32

 Wtd. Average Cost $1.77 $1.53 $1.42 $1.48


 The relationship between total volume an. cost is imperfect because

important factors affecting costs may be unequally distributed in the volume

groups. Some of these are length of season or number of days operated, per-

cent of house capacity used, investment in packinghouse assets and physical

arrangement of house and machinery which affect labor costs in particular.

The number of different lots, frequency of change of lots, number of diff-

erent containers packed and percent packout probably affect costs also to

some extent. There was not sufficient information on all these factors to

account for the effect of each on costs.


 Trends in Packing and Selling Cost

 The trend in total cost of packing and selling Florida citrus

fruits in the most common containers during the past 12 seasons has been

upward (Table 12). Because of the effects of the freeze in December 1962

in reducing volume of fruit, the 1962-63 costs rose to abnormal levels. The

change did not affect the averages of all packinghouses or all containers alike.

The East Coast houses were least affected and the packing and selling costs for

the 4/5 bu. fiberboard box of grapefruit, which was used in largest volume by