Small Scale Oil Seeds Processing

Project Structure

In 2012, the Sustainable Land Management Program (SLMP) of the GIZ began the promotion of small scale oil seeds processing in Tigray. For the Promotion of this project in the Western, North Western and Central Zones of Tigray, the Tigray Agricultural Marketing Promotion Agency (TAMPA) started to collaborate with the GIZ SLMP in 2013.

The project targets are so-called user groups consisting of oil seeds producing farmers. In 13 districts in Tigray, some 30 user groups, each consisting of 10 farmers, are provided with processing units. A processing unit is a manually operated oil expeller. Through the processing, value is added on the raw seed products. The final result is oil from Niger Seed or Safflower. The oil can be sold or used directly as food by the farmers. As a by-product, oil cake is generated, which can be used as a protein concentrate for cattlery.

Production Capacity

The production capacity for one oil expeller, which is usually operated in team work, is about 5 liters of oil per day, with about 1.8 tons of oil and 5.4 tons of oil cake produced per year. The net profit per year is therefore ETB 30,816, with ETB 4.28/kg for oil.

Financing

The credit costs for one oil expeller are usually calculated with an interest rate of 12.5%, i.e. ETB 55,625 per year. Repairs and maintenance demand on average 10% of the production, i.e. ETB 220 per year. For the depreciation, one has to calculate with about 12%.

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