Vacuum Dried Fruits Manufacturer

India is the second largest producer of food next to China with an estimated food processing industry size of US$ 70 billion. In 2012, the production was 257 million tonnes of food grain (rice, wheat, coarse grains, and pulses), 75 million tonnes of fruits, and 149 million tonnes of vegetables. Out of these amounts, only 2.2 % of these are processed. In contrast, countries like the USA (65%) and China (23%) are far ahead of India in reducing wastage and enhancing the value addition and shelf life of farm products. The losses in the postharvest sector are estimated to be from 10 to 25 percent in durables, semi-perishables, and products like milk, meat, fish, and eggs. The estimated losses in fruits and vegetables are higher and reached from 30 to 40 percent. These percentages are not acceptable and adversely affect the Indian economy. To prevent such losses, different organizations in India have been trying to find a solution for a serious issue related to post-harvest.

Some efforts came with progress and achievements, other work didn’t reflect visible success as expected. About 30 percent to 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables grown in India (40 million tons amounting to US$ 13 billion) get wasted annually due to gaps in the cold chain such as poor infrastructure, insufficient cold storage capacity, unavailability of cold storage near farms, poor transportation infrastructure, etc. This results in instability in prices and farmers cannot get remunerative prices besides rural impoverishment and farmers’ frustrations based on production and wholesale market prices in India, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) found that fruits and vegetables post-harvest losses reached the amount of $33,745 million in 2011-12 and may cross $33,745 million in 2013-14. Among the major producing states, West Bengal incurred the highest loss of $ 2,163 million followed by Gujarat $ 1,805 million, Bihar at 1,702 million, and Uttar Pradesh at $ 1,633 million (ASSOCHAM, 2013).

All the Governments have plans to promote the farmers to increase production but still do not have any solution to post-harvest or pre-post-harvest losses.

Market insights

The fruit and vegetable processing industry in India is likely to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~7.62% between FY 2018 and FY 2023 to reach a value of INR 256.4 Bn in FY 2023. Currently, commercial processing of fruits and vegetables is extremely low in India, at around 2.2% of the total production as compared to countries like Philippines at 78%, China at 23% and the United States (U.S.) at 65%. The unorganized sector witnesses a stiff competition, owing to the presence of a large number of players competing for small shares in the overall market. Organized players compete with each other to maintain their market share and gain brand loyalty.

Export opportunities

As India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables globally, its vast production base offers massive opportunities for exports. Moreover, India also has a geographical advantage being close to the key export destinations such as Africa, the Middle East, Oceania and the Southeast Asia. During FY 2018 India exported 391,283.8 metric tons (MT) of processed fruits and vegetables across the world, which was worth INR 34.04 Bn

Freeze-dried Food Market Report Scope

Key deterrents to the growth of the market

Lack of sufficient storage facilities and improper distribution are hampering the growth of the market. Existing stand-alone and integrated companies and third-party logistics providers such as Coldman Logistics and Snowman Logistics Limited offering cold storage and transportation solutions are unable to meet the entire demand for such services. These factors are adversely affecting the development of the fruit and vegetable processing industry in India.

Notwithstanding the policy thrust, the agriculture sector has, by and large, shown a lack luster performance with a meagre 2.9% growth rate during 2014–15 to 2018–19 (GoI 2019–20). Farmers’ inco­mes have fallen progressively below that of the non-farm sectors. Most farmers in India remain stuck in a low-income trap. In 2015–16, about 68% farmers with marginal landholdings earned an annual income of `33,636 from farming, which translates into a monthly income of `2,803, which is barely one-fifth of the national average (GoI 2015–16). Further, between 2014 and 2016 period, the farm revenue fell by 6% per year because of low market prices (OECD/ICRIER 2018).

Orchard Vacuum Drier v/s Freeze Dryer

Business plan

We already started disturbing free samples for tasting to close friends and our other companies’ potential customers. Till now we must have distributed 1000+ samples in India, Dubai, and the response is overwhelming.

To keep the selling prices of the fruits or vegetables steady the Orchard will sell the Orchard vacuum dryer at a price by earning minimum profit and the Orchard will earn profit from selling dried fruits and vegetables.

The machine will also be made available for interested entrepreneurs, for drying products like fruity vegetables or products like Ginger, Mushrooms, Turmeric, Onion, etc. We have already tried drying some of these products and observed a moisture content maximum of 4 to 5%. We also dried Turmeric containing 7.7% curcumin and when tasted at the lab the observed curcumin content was 7.62%. However, there will be an agreement between such processors and Orchard that, in any condition owners of vacuum dryers for the above product will not be allowed to dry fruits and leafy vegetables.

The Vacuum dryer machine will be fully automatic, and no parameter will be displayed when the dryer is in operation or off operation.

The dryer will be cloud-controlled.

If anyone tries to tamper with the machine it will cease to work. It will be restarted only after the user provides a satisfactory reason for tampering otherwise, he will have to pay software installation charges.

The Orchard will remotely observe all the operations, the user is drying only specified fruits he is allowed to dry, the weight of slices of the fresh fruits loaded for drying, and the weight of the dried fruit he got.

The Farmer will be paid the price of the fresh fruits or vegetables decided mutually. He will also be paid the total processing cost which includes, electricity, rent of the premises, manpower, and any other cost involved in processing and transportation to our inspection facility.

Dried fruits will be packed in the pouches provided by the Orchard. These pouches will be made with a layer of highly permeable film to O2 and water vapours with a layer of aluminum film.

The farmer will pack the dried fruits in airtight flexible bags provided by the Orchard and will dispatch to the Orchard state of art central inspection facility to check the quality and defects in the vacuum-dried fruits final packing will be done.

In case of any defect in dried fruits, quality issue, specification issue, or foreign material in the dried fruits such dried fruits packed pouches will be rejected and properly stored for joint inspection with the farmers. The farmer will not be paid for such dried fruits, and these rejected dried fruits will be disposed of in his presence.

All the dried fruits will be purchased from the farmer to whom the vacuum dryer is provided and marketed by Orchard to keep the selling prices all over the same.

Estimated Project Cost 25/50 Kg/charge in Lakhs

Test Report