Abstract For an optimal design of a production program in joint production (multi-product output from one raw material) one has to take into account that partial quantities of production have to be included which can neither be used within the production process nor marketed. These quantities are called surplus or disposal quantities. The paper is concerned with the question to what extent the optimal design of a production program in joint production is affected by variable disposal costs and maximum disposal quantities, while all the other data remain constant. For this purpose we start from a generalized formulation approach based on a linear programming model with parametrically variable disposal costs and maximum disposal quantities; this approach may be regarded as a synthesis of most planning approaches in joint production which can be found in the literature so far, and contains the latter as special cases for the most part. Subsequently, by means of a numerical example we demonstrate what changes in profits will possibly have to be put up with, depending on which special case is chosen for the formulation of the problem, and in what way the surplus quantities of individual joint products will then behave. The results obtained are directly applicable to a practical planning situation, since they show that deliberately allowing for surplus quantities under profit aspects is still advantageous, even if comparatively high disposal costs have to be taken into account - which at first sight could suggest a general avoidance of surplus quantities.