Techno-economic analysis of cold storage of jaggery

The production of jaggery is seasonal and, therefore, its preservation and storage becomes essential. The cold storages are being used in western Uttar Pradesh for storing jaggery. This investigation was undertaken to study the technical and economic aspects of some selected cold storages. Data were collected from ten cold storages located around Muzaffarnagar town of western Uttar Pradesh, through a questionnaire. The collected data included the details about the capacity, construction, plant and machinery, products stored, fixed assets and their costs, operating costs etc. The data were analysed to establish technical aspects of jaggery cold storages, storage cost, various fixed and operating cost indices and the profitability of jaggery cold storages. On the basis of the analysis, it was concluded that the storage cost ranged from about Rs 375 to Rs 1,107 per tonne of jaggery and was found to be significantly influenced by cold storage capacity. The storage cost trend points towards an optimum cold storage capacity in the range of 10 to 12 thousand tonnes. Beyond this range, the storage cost increases. The analysis does not indicate economic feasibility of setting up new cold storage plants, as almost in all the cold storage's, total annual operating cost is greater than the revenue earned. These existing cold storages are continuing in operation only because their annual operating costs are lower than the revenue earned.