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Fruit and Vegetable Drying

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Critical Steps for Drying (Unit Operations)

Dried Fruit photographs

Fig: Hot Air Dried Mango and Pineapple in plastic trays

Final Storage and dispatch

Packaging

Final Inspection of dried slices

Hot Air Drying

Slicing

Cutting & Peeling

Sorting

Washing

Cold Storage and Ripening

Fresh Fruit Receiving

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RVJ Eurasia Role in the project:

Market Demand of Hot Air Dried fruits and Vegetables

There are three market segments for dried fruits: food processing market, retail market, and

catering market.

The food processing market is by far the largest segment for dried fruits and catering

market is the smallest. Of these, major consumers are breakfast cereal industry (mostly in

muesli) and confectionery industry (in fruit and health bars, ingredients for chocolate

bars).

Dried fruit products for retail market are mainly sold as ready-to-eat snacks. Dried

tropical fruits such as mangoes, papayas and bananas are becoming more common item

in European health food stores and supermarkets, where they are sold pre-packed in

cellophane bags, as well as in bulk (by weight).

Catering market also uses a small quantity of dried fruits.

In India, dried fruit and vegetable market is expanding at a great pace because of its usage in

soups, pasta, noodles and bakery products manufacturing. Example: Maggi Pasta (from Nestle),

Noodles (from Nissin) are using dried carrots, tomato, mushroom for their products.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What kind of support will be offered by RVJ Eurasia?

RVJ Eurasia will provide the necessary support in commissioning hot air drying unit and

market linkage. The project can be developed in the following stages.

Stage 1: Feasibility Study and business plan development

Carrying out an extensive feasibility study matching the market requirements and the

local conditions.

Feasibility study will take market side requirements into considerations and designs

procurement, technology, quality & safety, financial and other elements around market.

This study will be carried out by combining our understanding of the fruit drying and by

achieving a good understanding of the local field level constraints

Stage 2: Project Execution/ Implementation

Detailed building design and lay-out to comply with the technology and operational

requirements will be worked out.

Orders for the equipment will be initiated while the building construction work is carried

out

The F&V procurement set-up will be finalized. Quality standards will also be set-up

The commissioning of the project will be taken up and the plant will be up and running

The buyer contracts will be initiated.

Stage 3: Operational Support

Taking up monitoring and control elements of the operations and fine-tuning it regularly

as per need of market.

Technology fine-tuning and product development support on a continuous basis.

Ensured market support (for mango, pineapple and other tropical fruits) with a possibility

to have a premium and continuous contracts

2. What will be the lag time which will be required for the primary research as well as

setting up the plant?

This can take from four to twelve months depending on the capacity requirements, scale

of investment and food safety/ quality systems implementation.

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3. What about the machinery? Who will be the suppliers?

We have already identified most of the machinery manufacturers, whose offerings are

quite appropriate in terms of quality and price. Hot Air Dryers will be imported from

reliable manufacturers in Asia or Europe because dried fruit quality depends a lot on

dryer. Other unit operations could be easily arranged in India. These will be suggested

after understanding the requirement.

4. What will be the required production per day?

As per our suggestion, a manufacturing unit with a production of 60-100 MT of dried

fruits is good enough for first year. Capacity can be increased on yearly basis based on

demand projections. We will most probably be going for batch process, so capacity

increase is quite simple and cost effective.

5. What will be the input output ratio of raw fruits and final product?

Dried fruit output is about 8 to 10% of the fresh.

6. Who will look after the marketing and promotions of the product?

RVJ Eurasia will charge services fee for international marketing support of products.

Service fee consist of both fixed and variable components. This will be discussed and

intimidated well in advance. The possibility of dried fruits and vegetable supply to

Europe for brands like Frootiez does exist.

7. What will be the total investment and land area requirement for this project?

Threshold Investment of about Rs. 60 lakh (for machinery) and an area of 800 to 1000 sq.

m. could be taken as an initial estimation for setting up of a Hot Air Drying Unit. Actual

investment required will depend on case to case basis and will figure in the business plan

we will prepare.

8. What will be the profit sharing ratio?

This project is not on profit sharing basis but on services fees. RVJ Eurasia will charge

services fee for hot air drying project and market development efforts .

9. What are the products which could be manufactured in the drying unit?

Hot Air Drying Unit could be used for a wide range of products. The dryer is suitable for

drying of most of the available fruits and vegetables. Drying of herbs and mushrooms is

also possible in the same dryer. A good planning can ensure round the year operations of

drying unit.