Techno-economic Evaluation of Roller Flour Mills in Punjab

Abstract

Milling is an imperative physical function involved in converting wheat into its milled products. Techno-economic evaluation of roller flour mills for central plain, western plain and western regions of Punjab was carried out wit data collected from different roller milling systems through a questionnaire containing information about parameters such as size, capacity, machinery, milled wheat products, various fixed and variable costs and the profitability of milling systems. The percentage capacity utilization of small and large roller flourmills was 7.15% and 9.06% respectively for central plain region. For western plain region, percentage capacity utilization of small roller flourmill was 38.00% and there was no large roller flourmill in this region. Also in western region, there was no small and large roller flourmill. The processing costs were Rs. 33.36 and Rs.26.41 per quintal of wheat milled at the installed capacity of small and large roller flour mills respectively, whereas for western plain region, processing costs were Rs. 26.70 for small roller flourmills. The margins were Rs. 11.35 and Rs. 15.54 per quintal of wheat milled in small and large roller flourmill in central plain region, and Rs. 17.73 per quintal of wheat milled of small roller flourmills for western plain region. The low margins in these mills shows the grim situation of roller flourmills in Punjab as they are running into losses.