Jam making is a profitable business as one can initiate this on a small scale with low capital investment. Now a day’s food processing industry has started receiving a great deal of attention from the policymakers.
- Feasibility of Food Processing Business in Pakistan
The ever-growing consumer demands have opened up huge investment opportunities for foreign and private entities in the food processing processing industry in Pakistan because one can get cheap fruit and labor to initiate business related to food processing. You can start the business at your home also. However, you should have proper planning and strategy.
- Fruits for jam Making
Generally, you can produce jam from almost every type of fruit and some vegetables. Fruit jam contains rich fruit pulp and available in mango, apple, mixed fruit etc. People use jam as the bread spread and as a filling for some cakes and cookies.
- Jam Making Ingredients
The major raw materials required for the production of fruit jam are different fruits and vegetables like mango, apple, orange, guava, carrot, and banana. The consumables include sugar, citric acid, preservatives, food grade colors, chemicals, flavors, common salt etc.
Additionally, you will need to procure the packaging consumables. First of all, you have to pack the product glass bottle or jars. And finally in cartons.
- Jam Making Machines & Equipment
For a small scale conventional production process oriented unit, you will need to have the following equipment.
- cutters and graters
- Cap Sealing Machine
- Carton Sealing Machine
Additionally, you will need to procure some other equipment and tools. The list includes
- weighing scale
- glassware
- storage racks etc.
- Jam making process
First of all, wash the fruits in water and remove the skins. After peeling, cut or slice them into small pieces. Then, boil these pieces with water. Add an appropriate quantity of sugar with the pulp.
When the temperature is around 60 C; citric acid, color, essence etc. are added. This mixture is then stirred for a while, cooled and then packed in bottles.
The process flowchart is:
Washing, Peeling and slicing –> Boiling –> Mixing of Sugar with Pulp –> Cooling –> Packing
Economic Sustenance
As the fixed cost for jam production business at small scale is not too much to afford by a rural family so they can get it started by simple committee finance system or micro finance moreover taking qarz-e-hasna from Al-khidmat foundation is also a wonderful option.
We know labor is cheap in rural areas, particularly women labor, instead of purchasing costly pupler and slicer, labor can be used to escape from heavy initial fixed cost.
Fruits like mango and apple are available at nominal prices in different areas of the country. Additionally, carrot can be used in mixed jams which too cheap in vegetable markets.
- Estimated Cost for Equipment
Here estimated cost for equipment and variable cost (daily basis) estimates are given for producing jam from 50 kg of fruit per day using family labor and rural women labor.
Estimated gross profit is given by considering a price which is 10 rupees lower than branded jam per jar. By producing 50 kg jam, at least 200 jars of 250 grams can be filled. Sugar is required less almost equal or somewhat less than weight of fruit.
Cost Benefit Analysis
Item | Price | Expenditure |
Cutter (one dozen) | 30 per piece | 360 |
Grater (one dozen) | 40 per piece | 480 |
Cap Sealing Machine | 80,000 | 80,000 |
weighing scale | 1000 | 1000 |
Thermometer | 400 | 400 |
Total Cooking utensils | Approximately 5000 | 5000 |
Total Fixed cost | 87,240 | |
Per Day Variable Cost for min 50 kg jam production | ||
Glassware | 30 per piece | 30*200= 6000 |
Storage Racks | 350 per piece | 350*8= 2800 |
Sugar for 50 kg fruit | 52 per kg | 52*45= 2340 |
Lemon | 45 per kg | 45*1.5= 67.5 |
Ginger | 130 per kg | 5*130= 650 |
Labor cost (for peeling, slicing etc.) (women labor) | 400 per women 1 woman for washing 3 woman for peeling and slicing, 1 woman for cooking | 400*5=2000 |
Electricity and fuel cost | 1000+450 (20 kg firewood) | 1450 |
Total variable cost per day | 15,307 | |
Revenue/ Gross Profit and B/C Ratio
Production per day | Price per jar | Total revenue per day |
200 jars | 120 | 24,000 |
Gross profit per day | 24000-15307= 8,693 | |
Benefit cost ratio | 24000/15307= 1.56 | |
Social Feasibility
The assessment of the social feasibility of the proposed enterprise reveals that the Pakistani population is predominantly poor which can supply cheap labor and raw fruits for jam making.
The women directly involved and their communities would benefit in a number of direct and indirect ways from the establishment of the proposed enterprise.
It will help in;
- Increasing job opportunities at rural area,
- Improving nutrition of rural poor people
- Income of rural families
- value added production of other related products
Environmental Feasibility
Sufficient quantities of high quality fruit are available throughout the year to fuel processing of the respective products at a reasonable cost and that fruits can be harvested on Sustainable basis, without adverse impacts on the regenerative potential of the trees.
Commercial scaling
This is one of the easiest businesses you can start in the food processing industry, moreover, this business allows several other operations from same unit to enhance the profitability. Therefore, one can also produce pickles and sauce from jam making unit as well.
A rural producer of jam can sale his/her product at small shop along his/her house as retailer. Moreover, one can supply it in whole sale market and retail shops in nearby town/city. If self-transport is not available, then auto-rickshaws and other passenger vans can be used to transport in the beginning of enterprise.
Shelf life
For jam using sugar, you can expect to get about two years of shelf life when stored in a cool, dry place.