Feasibility Study of Jaggery Making

WHY – The traditional jaggery making process has been identified as energy as well as
labour intensive. Traditional jaggery making requires 18-22 labourers and they have to be
paid at least 250 rupees per day. These labourers have to work in harsh working conditions
and are constantly exposed to open fire. Moreover, the quality of the end product largely
depends on the operator’s experience. Chemicals are often added to improve the colour of
jaggery, which is quite harmful.

There is still scope of improvement, with the ever increasing population and its demand for
healthy natural sweeteners. Research and development in the jaggery production should be
directed towards standardizing the product, improving shelf life and reducing energy
consumption. From the above statements, the current need is for energy efficient and
standardized jaggery making system that should be developed. The developed solution should
also be economically and socially acceptable by major stakeholders.

Proposed solution: In the proposed solution, a continuous process is set in place for the
jaggery production, which is faster and hygienic. It is hygienic because it is untouched by
hand, the entire process works like any continuous chemical process industry. The hygiene
factor will definitely push the market value of the jaggery end product because the question
of hygiene always lingers on the consumers mind. If hygienic jaggery product with intact
nutritional value is available, the consumer’s willingness to pay will also increase. There
seems to be a huge potential market to tap into.

HOW - Process used to develop and apply the solution: It is important to understand the
traditional jaggery making process before explaining the technical aspects of the proposed
solution. The traditional jaggery making process involves harvesting of sugarcane from field
and crushing of the cane in the roll crusher. The extracted liquid from the crusher that is the
sugarcane juice, the juice is transferred into the pan. The juice is transferred sometimes
manually into the pan, where juice losses might take place due to spillage.

The juice is added into the pan, limestone is added to the pan to remove the impurities. The
flocculation and coagulation of impurities takes at this stage. The liquid is heated in the pan
with the help of heat generated by burning the baggase left behind after crushing. The
baggase left behind is wet in nature, which is difficult to burn. Since the wet baggase is burnt
the heat efficiency goes down because most of the heat is wasted in evaporating the moisture
remaining in the baggase.

During the heating process the scum accumulates at the top surface, which needs to be
removed manually with a large strainer. This removal has to be continuous and proper
because the golden colour of the viscous liquid is only achieved when the scum is removed.
Once the liquid starts boiling, it turns into a thick viscous liquid. It is continuously boiled
and stirred till most of the water is evaporated, that is up to a temperature of 118°C.

To judge the exact end point goli test is performed. The goli test involves taking a sample of
the hot concentrated cane juice and quenching it in water. After quenching if it forms a hard
solid dense mass then it means the end point has been achieved. The range of temperature
also determines what type of goli it is, as we get three different types of goli within the
temperature range of 118-122°C. The three different types of goli are soft, intermediate and
hard. Higher the temperature harder will be the goli but it runs a risk of caramelization of the
viscous liquid. Harder goli also means that the moisture content will be less in comparison to
the soft or intermediate goli. This understanding has been achieved by physically seeing and
experimenting out the traditional jaggery making process.

Cutting of Crushing/ Juice Juice Screening/

Cane Transportation
Sugarcane Extraction Clarification

Heating in Open Concentration Solid Mass

Scum Removal
Pan Open Boiling formation /Cooling

Labour Intensive

Figure 1: Process Flow Sheet of Traditional Jaggery Making Unit

In the above Figure (Figure 1), the entire gist of unit operations carried out in the traditional
jaggery making process is briefly depicted. The processes which are highlighted in red are
those which are labour intensive, it has been found that the unit operations can be automated
to reduce the labour requirement and make the process continuous. For example, the open
pan evaporators are replaced by multiple effect evaporators which reduce the labour
requirement drastically.
ASK - Requirement to reach the market (monetary/testing/collaboration/any other) The
idea that jaggery is only a traditional Indian sweetener is not true since other countries also
manufacture it. The reason this has been a gray area because not much awareness is
prevailing regarding the nutritional value of jaggery and its consumption pattern in different
countries whereas sugar on the other hand is major trade commodity like wheat.

Once the nutritional value of jaggery is validated then it becomes easier to establish a Unique
Selling Proposition (USP). This will help creating awareness as well as the demand for
jaggery amongst consumers whether it is Business to Business (B2B) or Business to
Consumer (B2C). In the international market the Indian sugar industry has made an effort to
export raw sugar to South Korea. South Korea imports near about 1.5 million tonnes of raw
sugar (Source: Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority,
APEDA) annually and the Indian sugar industry is trying to tap into South Korean market in
the year 2018-19.

Market Size - Potential target market

Social impact - assessed/ predicted
Field tests conducted so far (workshops/students reached/prototypes built/sample size/)

Jaggery Retailers (B2B):

B2B stakeholders like retailers (Unorganised) and jaggery traders were identified for the
qualitative and quantitative analysis study. These B2B stakeholders were chosen with the
motive to understand the jaggery market, pricing strategy and demand for certain varieties of
jaggery depending on its colour and source of production.

In a pilot study of the jaggery market, jaggery traders at the Vashi APMC (Agricultural
Produce Market Committee) were contacted. The contacts were obtained with the help of M/s
J. D. Group of Social Research and Process Services Pvt. Ltd., around 10 traders were
contacted out of those three gave their consent to participate in the survey.

The research methodology used should be first qualitative based, that is through one on one
interview to understand what attributes are favourable for the retailer. Then this can be
quantified, quantitatively to understand the preferred attributes. The appropriate data for this
is being collected and conjoint analysis being performed to better understand the preferred
attribute.

Jaggery Consumers (B2C):

It is also important to understand the consumer’s consumption style and patterns. It is also
important to understand the purchasing tendencies of the consumers.

For the people belonging to the rural and urban bottom of the pyramid, purchasing
tendencies are heavily dependent on the price of the product. Perception of quality is based
on colour and the purchase is driven by ethnicity of the cuisines made in their households. It
is necessary to understand quantitatively the attributes that drive these consumers to purchase
jaggery.