ENGINEERING JOURNAL CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY

Volume 27, No. 01, Month APRIL, Year 2020, Pages 130 - 142

An economic analysis of conventional var.assamica green tea processing in small and medium enterprises (sme)

Sunate Surbkar, Janjira Phukan, Nipa Nipuangla, Choatpong Kanjanaphachoat and Sumit Chueamchaitrakun

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The current issue of self-employed is becoming more interesting and attractive. A tea processing is one of the best options for freelance. Therefore, this research aims to study the processing of green tea; assam variety (Camellia sinensis var. Assamica) in Chiang rai, data were collected in Dec 2018 with young green tea production for 1 rep, and mature green tea for 3 rep. Data analysis also emphazied on the engineering economics analysis as a guideline for business decisions. We found that fresh young tea leaves of 10.8 kg (76.70 ± 0.59%w.b.) produced dried young tea of 2.36 kg (6.66 ± 0.26%w.b.) with the recovery ratio of 5:1. On the other hand, fresh mature tea leaves of 12.67 kg (70.20 ± 0.19%w.b.) produced dried mature tea of 4.25 kg (2.24 ± 0.13%w.b.) with the recovery ratio of 3:1. Good physical properties of these dried teas produced by this SME can be preserved. The phenolic compounds within those tea drinks showed that the amount of polyphenols in young tea drink was higher than that of in mature tea drink, indicated that young tea drink should be better in term of healthy than that of mature tea drink. However, the preference of tea drink is individual depending on the linking, preferness and so on. The economic analysis showed that the initial capital for young green tea processing was about 935,000 baht and for mature green tea was about 985,000 baht. Due to the young green tea cannot be produced every day like mature one, the annual production volume of young green tea over the mature one was a ratio of 1 to 22. From the findings, it can be concluded that new entrepreneurs with limited capital should invest on mature green tea as it can be produced throughout the year; resulted in a shorter payback period. If additional funds are available, the processing of young green tea can be extended.

Keywords

Break-even point, Payback period, tea processing

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