Cost-benefit analysis of fruits drying using different technical alternatives

Abstract

Modern preserve technologies and storage fruit practices include the drying of fruits as the most used methods. There are different technical possibilities for fruit drying, from the simplest one in which fruit is dried directly to the sophisticated automatic where in advance all parameters are defined. The quality of dried fruit depends on the quality of the fresh fruit and on the drying methods. The drying costs include the cost of energy investment cost in building and equipment. Appropriate decision requires the knowledge of the value of the dried fruit as well as the drying cost by each position. However, in Serbia often the decision makers consider only technical characteristics of the drying equipment, without economic analysis which often cause very low benefit of dried fruit. The paper is aimed to provide cost-benefit analysis of the most used technical solution of fruit drying in Serbia using several parameters. The economic analysis includes the most important variables by building, equipment, drying process and finally by marketing of dried fruit.

Savremene tehnologije konzervisanja i čuvanja voća podrazumevaju korišćenje procesa sušenja kao osnovnog i najviše primenjivanog postupka. Postoje različita tehnička rešenja sistema za sušenje voća, od najjednostavnijih u kojima se obavlja proces direktnog sušenja, do visoko automatizovanih sistema u kojim se unapred definišu svi parametri procesa sušenja. Rezultati sušenja zavise od kvaliteta osušenih proizvoda, sa jedne strane i od troškova sušenja, koji se najvećim delom sastoje od utrošene energije, zatim od investicija u objekte i opremu za sušenje, sa druge strane. Za donošenje valjane odluke neophodno je poznavati ove vrednosti. Cilj ovog rada je analiza ekonomskih efekata i definisanje postupka za određivanje troškova korišćenja ovih sistema u Srbiji, na osnovu izabranih apsolutnih i relativnih ekonomskih pokazatelja. Rad ukazuje na najvažnije ekonomske aspekte od izbora objekta, nabavke opreme, procesa sušenja do komercijalizacije proizvoda.