Objective: To analyze the profitability and competitiveness of five crops to evaluate the economic viability and to recommend the best option for the productive reconversion to the producers from the economic point of view.Design/methodology/approach: Five technological packages of bean, corn, castor bean, sorghum and hibiscus crops were established, which serve as information inputs for economic analysis. Through the policy analysis matrix methodology, three interconnected Excel sheets are designed for profit, income, cost, cost benefit ratio, value added, intermediate consumption and private cost ratio to define profitability and competitiveness of the crops analyzed. It works with current or market prices and with the first line of the policy analysis matrix.Results: Of the results obtained, beans have a gain of only $2,800 pesos per hectare produced; while hibiscus was $95,590 pesos per hectare with a production of 700 kg sold at a price of $150 pesos per kilogram of dry calyx. With respect to the B / C ratio, beans have the lowest, while sorghum and hibiscus are the highest with 1.80 and 9.20 respectively. The added value and intermediate consumption of beans, corn and castor bean crops, shows similar figures, while sorghum and hibiscus have indicators of 80% and 97% for added value and 20% and 3% for intermediate consumption.With respect to the private cost (CPR) ratio, beans are those that tend to 1, while Jamaica is 0, which indicates that the former is less competitive than the latter.Conclusions: Of the five crops analyzed, beans were the least profitable and competitive, presenting a profit of only $2,800 pesos, a cost benefit ratio of $1.30 and a competitiveness index of 0.64. Hibiscus, on the other hand, was the most competitive and profitable with an R B / C of $ 9. 20 pesos, and a CPR of 0.08.
