Die bepaling van die produksiekoste van eetbare olie en die keuse tussen alternatiewe produksiemetodes

Abstract

Determining the production costs of edible oils and the choice between alternative production methods With the continuous population growth, locally as well as In the rest of the world, food suppliers will have to play an ever increasing role in supplying adequate protein for human consumption. With the shrinking availability of agricultural land it has already been determined that a higher yield can be obtained by utilising the land for vegetable protein instead of animal protein. The most common protein bearing seeds are soya, sunflower, groundnut and cotton. When these seeds are processed two products become available, namely oil and oilcake. ln this paper oil will be treated as the main product and oilcake as a by-product. In order to be competitive It is of imperative importance that a manufacturer should be able to determine the production costs as accurately as possible before any Investment decision can be taken. The manufacturing of edible oils envolves four basic processes, namely decorticating, pressing, extraction and refining. By determining the costs and process losses of each of these processes It is possible to calculate the production cost. Different factors like method of financing, depreciation policy, interest payment and stock valuation will influence the production cost. It appears, however, that for a given process, product throughput i.e. utilisation of plant. will exert the greatest influence on production cost.

Especially during times of Inflation it is important that replacement cost and the time-value of money should get the necessary attention in order to reflect a realistic cost-price of the product. Production cost, however, is just a part of total cost and in order to determine competitiveness in the market place the non manufacturing costs will also have to be available . Crude edible oil, predominantly consisting of glycerol and fatty acids, can either be refined by means of a chemical process or a physical process. The chemical process can further be done on a batch or continuous basis where as in ...