Variation and structure of forest nursery production costs depending on production technology

The aim of this study was to analyse and compare the costs of nursery production depending on the applied production technology (bare−root/field, tunnel, and container systems), as well as to assess the statistical significance of differences in cost levels among these technologies. The study was based on accounting data from the years 2018−2024 obtained from the State Forests Information System (SILP). The analysis covered 55 nursery holdings operating under three production technologies. The cost structure was examined by type of expense, while direct costs were analysed according to cost centres (CC). Differences between production technologies were assessed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, followed by Dunn’s post−hoc test with Bonferroni correction. Within the cost structure of nursery production, services (46.5−59.8%) and material consumption (26.1−29.5%) were the dominant components. The highest share of depreciation was observed in the container production system (15.9%). Over the analysed period, production costs exhibited a clear upward trend, while the level of seedling production remained relatively stable. The highest average production costs per unit of production area were recorded in the container system (on average 18 517 PLN per are), followed by the tunnel system (7 705 PLN per are), and the lowest in the field system (1 876 PLN per are). The Kruskal−Wallis test indicated statistically significant differences between the analysed production technologies (p<0.001). The obtained results demonstrate that both the structure and the level of nursery production costs are strongly determined by the applied production technology, as well as by the share of labour and infrastructure maintenance costs in the production process.