Answer:
ALL EXCEPT PRODUCTION
Explanation:
The costs of the value chain includes: Research and Development, Design Costs, Production, Marketing, Distribution and Customer Service.
The costs of the value chain are expensed in the current year income statement because they majorly (except production costs) fall under the category called periodic costs.
Periodic costs are costs that are more aligned with the passage of time than directly traceable to units of a product or event. Another major difference between product costs and period costs is that product costs can only be incurred when the products have been acquired or manufactured, while periodic costs will apply when the goods have not been acquired or produced yet, or as aforementioned, are associated with the passage of time.
In the light of above definition, all costs within the value chain are expensed as periodic costs with the exception of production costs which obviously are product costs.