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Business idea: processing walnuts and pine nuts. How are walnuts processed? Analysis of walnut processing equipment

To date, processing walnut is a very good idea for a small business.

In this article, using the example of Ukraine, we will consider such a type of small business as walnut processing. The climatic conditions have so developed that far from every country a walnut can grow and ripen. In Ukraine, 120-130 yew grows annually. tons of walnuts and in this indicator only the USA and China can compete with Ukraine 460 yew. tons and 700 thousand. t respectively. However, in China, almost the entire walnut crop goes to the domestic market, the same situation is in the United States, so Ukraine proudly ranks first in the export of this product (more than 80% of the products are exported).

In any type of business, including small ones, the most important thing is profitability. Therefore, before you start this small business, you need to carefully calculate everything and draw up a business plan. I must say right away that not everyone succeeds in processing walnuts. The profitability of walnut processing is about 50%. In this business, who you will sell finished products to plays a very important role. If you focus on the domestic market, then the profit will not be so great, but if you try to reach large buyers abroad, then your profit will be much higher. But it is not so easy to reach foreign wholesalers, so many producers sell processed walnuts to domestic wholesalers.

Types of shelling.

When processing walnuts, there are several ways to peel them:

manual cleaning;
vacuum method;
mechanical way;
soaking with roasting;
cleaning with the help of a calibrating - crushing apparatus.

Now let's look at each method in more detail.

Manual cleaning walnut from the shell is the most ancient method of cleaning, which has survived to this day. The profitability of this cleaning method is very low. People who are engaged in walnut peeling receive pennies at such enterprises, there is a very large turnover of staff and often people who have nowhere else to go, pensioners and the disabled, work. How does this cleaning method work? There are large tables at which the workers sit. There are large piles of walnuts in the middle of the tables. Near each worker there are containers for shells, quarters, halves and cuts. This type of cleaning has remained in China, we practically do not have such workshops.

Vacuum method peeling a walnut is already a more advanced method than manual processing. The technology is as follows: a walnut is loaded into a container for compressed air, after which air is pumped into the container by a compressor and after a while it is abruptly discharged. From a sharp pressure drop, the walnut shell does not withstand and bursts.

Mechanical method of cleaning a nut. The technology of peeling a walnut is as follows: a walnut is poured into the bunker, then the walnut is fed to a press, which breaks the shell with the help of mechanical pressure on the walnut. The pressure on the press is adjustable, depending on the quality of the nut and the thickness of the shell. A significant disadvantage of this method is that all nuts are different and the pressure for their peeling is different, so a lot of culling is obtained, which the press simply crushed. You also need to constantly adjust the pressure, and this greatly slows down the process of peeling the walnut.

Roasted walnut soak. The technology is as follows: the nut is poured into a container with water and soaked for a while, after which it is placed in an oven with a temperature of 600 to 900 degrees Celsius for a few seconds. Excessive pressure is created inside the nut and the shell bursts.

Cleaning with a calibrating crusher, this is the most common type of walnut peeling. The technology is as follows: the walnut is sifted into fractions using a sizing sieve, then it is fed into the crusher along the conveyor belt. The crushing section has several sections for different fractions, or one, the size of which is adjusted depending on the fraction. The nut in the crusher splits and enters the winnower, which separates the shell from the kernel. Then the nut enters the sizing sieve, which separates the various fractions of the kernel.

It is worth noting that no matter what cleaning method you choose, do not forget that no matter what equipment you have, you still have to do some work manually. Alas, without it in any way.

Walnut processing: equipment.

Equipment for peeling and processing walnuts is quite expensive, so many novice businessmen make it with their own hands. If your finances allow, then it is better to buy ready-made equipment. This will firstly increase the productivity of your small business, and secondly, you will not have to puzzle over the development of new equipment. The approximate cost of the walnut peeling line is from 200 to 900 yew. dollars. This is of course not enough.

Walnut processing: purchase of raw materials.

The purchase of raw materials is the most important aspect this small business. During the year, the price of round nuts varies greatly. The lowest cost in the season, and then the price increase right up to the next season. Therefore, large walnut processors buy large quantities during the season, and then dry them and store them in a warehouse. But in order to purchase such a large batch, which would be enough for a whole year, large investments and large storage facilities are needed. Also, during storage, it is necessary to maintain the correct mode of maintenance so that the nut does not get wet and does not dry out. Raw materials can be purchased in bulk from major owners walnut orchards, as well as among the population. Buying from orchards is good because the nut is of the same grade, and consequently the shell is the same and the same size, and this will greatly facilitate the subsequent calibration of the round nut and reduce losses during peeling. When buying a roundwood nut from the population, you will not save much, but the nut that you buy will be collected under different trees and will have to be more carefully sized. Also, when buying a nut from the population, one must not forget that there are such varieties of nuts in which the shell is thick and it peels very badly. So when buying raw materials, you need to look both ways and choose products very carefully so as not to be left without profit.

GOST standards according to which nuts are divided.

After splitting, nuts according to GOST standards are divided into the following categories:

The Extra Class contains halves and quarters, but their content must not exceed 10%;
The first grade allows the content of 15% of the total mass of nuts with a size of 1/8.
Halves, this category includes halves of a nut, while their content must be at least 80% of the total mass. The remaining 20% are quarters and a core the size of three-quarter halves.
Quarters.

Nut kernels are sorted on a sizing sieve.

Also, the price and quality of the sold walnut kernel is affected by its moisture content, it should be no more than 10%.

Walnut Processing: Small Business Expansion.

If you have decided to seriously engage in the processing of walnuts, then you should think about creating your own garden. This will greatly reduce the cost of raw materials and make your company independent of anyone. Also a big plus is that you can plant nuts at your place. good quality, which will greatly facilitate the process of processing and calibration for you. For a garden, it is enough for you to rent 50 hectares of land from the state for 49 years. Of course, you will have to make a good financial investment, but the garden will fully pay for itself in 3 years. Also, you can not only sell shelled walnuts, but you can also sell round walnuts.

The article is located in the section: Business ideas with medium investments.

Walnut, how useful it is, how much useful substances it contains. Nuts are loved by everyone. The walnut is popularly called the tree of life, and this is no exaggeration. For a long time, he fed, restored strength and healed a person.

But not always people thought about the processing of walnuts in the context of a business idea, today's article will be devoted to this topic. Let's start with the fact that not everyone understands how nuts can be processed. What can be done with them if you speak plain language. I think that each of you in your life at least once heard or saw an advertisement for the purchase of nuts, and many who asked themselves “why do they need this?”.

What is the point of this business?

Walnuts are in high demand. The walnut is shelled, then the pure walnut kernels are packaged and sold at rather high prices. That is, it is very profitable business, it is widely appreciated in European countries. In all cities there are people who buy nuts in the villages. And there are also the largest companies that grow nuts, but extract grains, few. This is very hard labour, earlier this was done manually, but technology has stepped far forward and now machines do the work for people.

Say what you like, but in every business there are both positive and negative sides. And now we will consider them. What are the pros and cons of processing nuts?

Processing of nuts begins with the fact that the nuts themselves are needed, where can I get them? Can you grow your own? It will take many years to grow a tree, and only after about five years the tree will give its first fruits, but you should not expect that it will immediately give many fruits. This method takes a lot of time. And the task of any businessman is to invest less money and time, and get more. So we conclude that buying nuts is more promising than growing them.

How to process nuts?

Processing is cracking nuts and extracting grain, this can be done in two ways: the first is by hand. What does manual mean? The fact that it is very time-consuming, so you still need to provide workers with tools. The income will be small. And we cannot allow this, so the production uses special equipment - nutcrackers, but it should be noted that such equipment does not peel the grains from the shell, so human labor will still be needed. But in this case, much less labor will be involved, about three to five people out of the fifteen that would be needed for manual cleaning.

Of course, there are nutcrackers that both crack nuts and clean grain, but such equipment costs from two thousand five hundred dollars.

Business income is one of the main factors. If we calculate, then from about three kilograms of unpeeled nuts we get one kilogram of grain. If we talk about one shift, then it is worth noting that in one shift from the hands of workers, one hundred and fifty - three hundred and fifty kilograms of peeled nuts come out. On average, the company earns two hundred thousand rubles per month. Since, on average, one kilogram of a peeled nut costs one dollar. In addition, the price of nuts depends on whether the grains are broken or not. "Butterflies", half a nut - more expensive. The type of walnut also plays a very important role.

So we smoothly approached the topic of buying machine tools, the main thing here is not to make a mistake. Of course, it is better to enlist the support and knowledge of specialists, as there are different nutcrackers, some of them are designed to process only one variety. A very unpleasant story will turn out if, due to your inexperience, you buy nutcrackers, but they do not fit, or worse, they break. In addition, buying a machine for one variety is very unprofitable, since one industrial nutcracker costs from a thousand dollars, and we are talking about investing at a minimum and gaining a maximum. And you also need to know that the simplest nutcracker can process only one hundred kilograms of nuts in an hour.

Probably everyone has already thought about where to put the shell? We also have an answer to this question: not only nut kernels are in demand, but also the shell, only it costs less. Nut shells are one of the best raw materials for the production solid fuel which is especially appreciated in Germany. But there are also people who, after processing the nuts, they just burn the shell, this is very stupid, because there are so many useful uses for the walnut shell. Walnut shells can be useful in everyday life, for example: in the garden, in the garden, in medicine.

Let's draw conclusions, and so the walnut business is very profitable. Despite the disadvantages of this business, but they are. Namely, the disadvantages of processing - a large staff and theft, but the pros outweigh - high quality final product(respectively, the cost of sale) and a smaller percentage of waste, and this is also money.

Today you learned more about nut processing and this business. Thank you for your attention!

For processing walnuts are used different types equipment - from manual peelers to units specialized in deep processing of raw materials, including equipment for the production of oil and leaf extracts.

Growing walnut for sale

For example: 200 trees will be placed on 1 hectare. Expenses for tillage and site preparation, purchase and transportation of planting material and fertilizers average $2500-3000. This figure will increase if walnut trees are taken care of (watering, crown formation, hilling, weeding, fertilizing) by a hired worker.

With an average yield of 18 kg per tree, 1 ha will produce at least 3.2 tons of fruit.

The purchase price for 1 kg of unshelled nuts is $1-$2, which gives an income of $3200-$6400. Thus, the investment will pay off in a couple of years, and in the future will give a net profit.

The maximum income comes from the sale of shelled kernels, especially halves (butterflies). If a kilogram of round timber costs an average of $0.9-$1.4, then a kilogram of peeled kernels costs $6.1-$6.8.

Risks

A walnut growing business does not guarantee a quick profit. Contrary to numerous articles on the Internet, it will not be possible to open your own processing plant in 5-6 years. This business plan is designed for the long term.

Its risks include weather, pests and diseases of plants. Changes temperature regime observed in last years, disrupt the natural timing of fruit ripening and reduce yields.

Reduces its pests (nut moth, codling moth) and diseases (white spot, bacteriosis). Fruits lose marketable condition and taste qualities, in the worst case, it comes to the death of the plant, which requires the manufacturer to additionally spend on processing seedlings or on the purchase of new ones.

It is more profitable to organize the purchase of round timber from the population. This will save not only money, but also time.

In this case, the costs will be minimal, and you can earn money by selling the halves of the kernels peeled from the shell.

Main types of processing equipment

In small and medium-sized businesses, units are used for both primary (chopping) and deep processing of raw materials, which make it possible to obtain an extract from a green fruit, nut oil or tea from the leaves.

Peelers

The device in the form of a drum removes the pericarp, speeds up the processing of round timber and does not damage the shell.

At the same time, it washes away the iodine present in the green peel, preserving the light color of the kernel, and carries out a preventive washing of the fruit from dirt and dust.

Nut calibrator

Divides round timber into fractions by diameter before processing on nutcrackers that require raw material calibration, increasing the percentage of butterfly yield. It happens linear (with a flexible system of settings) and rotary (holes are fixed, cannot be adjusted).

Nutcrackers

Designed for accurate splitting of round timber, which ultimately determines the cost of production.

The nuts used in processing are divided into:

Manual - characterized by a low level of profitability and productivity (up to 5 kg / h). Suitable for home use only.
Mechanical - the calibrated round timber enters the bunker and falls under the press, which is actuated by a manual lever. The extraction rate of the nuclei is up to 30 kg/h. Used in home and small business.
Electric – processes 50–200 kg/h. Applies to small and medium businesses.
Industrial - core extraction speed - up to 1 t / h. They shell the round timber without pre-calibration, which saves time and money.

vibrating sieve

Above the split round timber enters the sieve, where it is separated into fractions. The unsplit nut is returned for a splitting. Butterflies, quarters and eighths are fed into the aspiration system to blow out shells, dust and third-party debris. At the end, both the shell and the kernels (depending on the fraction) enter a separate container.

Industrial lines

The walnut processing line is a complete turnkey solution for a start-up entrepreneur. AT basic version it includes a calibrator, an industrial nut cracker, a splitting machine, core extracting tools, a vibrating screen and a business plan.

Such a simple system allows processing up to 1.6 tons of raw materials per day. Depending on the wishes of the client, the line can be supplemented with a vibrating screen, an aspiration system, a belt conveyor.

Leading manufacturers of processing equipment

The leading equipment manufacturer in Europe is AMB ROUSSET (France). Since 1970, it has been producing powerful full-cycle lines.

In the US, Jessee Equipment Manufacturing is the leader. Over its 60-year history, the company has earned a reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality and reliable equipment. The company is actively implementing various innovative technologies such as calibrating raw materials with a laser.

Technika-Rostov assembles modular equipment systems that are easy to install and transport and meet the requirements of each client. The great advantage of this manufacturer's products is its affordable price and after-sales service.

technologist - to know the whole production process.

and first of all sane staff.

Well, in principle, you understood correctly, now everyone is faced with the task of purchasing high-quality raw materials, buying them from private yards is not so high quality and it turns out.

I am also interested in this

The problem lies in the fact that all these machines are designed and configured to process ONE variety of nuts, and in Ukraine there are about 12 varieties of nuts.

Ukrainian walnut is very different both in size and hardness of the shell, which makes the use of imported machines economically unprofitable.

Such machines will turn your nut into dust, suitable only for the production of nut butter.

Given the penny cost of human labor, especially in regions, it is much more profitable to organize manual processing of walnuts.

The disadvantage of such production is a large staff and theft, but the advantages outweigh the high quality of the final product (respectively, the cost of sale) and a lower percentage of waste, and this is also money.

Again, if something doesn't go well or you don't like it, you just fire people and forget about the nut. With equipment, especially for, it’s more difficult to sell it, because what you understood today, others understood yesterday, namely, that a machine for a nut is money thrown away.

Everything that I wrote is just a personal opinion and a little bit of experience in this business.

Will it be cost-effective to buy a mini walnut processing line if I have 1-2t. no more nuts are available. Or is it better to start processing manually, and only when the volumes increase to purchase it?

And yet, can someone at least in general terms describe the + and - mech. generation and division into fractions?

There are 5,000 small walnut processors in Ukraine, 500 medium-sized and 50 large ones. Large and medium-sized ones have their own harvesting points from intermediaries, who, in turn, collect nuts from the population. In Ukraine, nuts of industrial planting are just beginning to bear fruit, mainly - 90% - these are plantations in forest plantations or in private backyards. Therefore, I would not get into processing on a small scale if you do not know where you will take the raw materials.

In recent years, many people have been seriously thinking about. But which direction to choose? What to take in order not to burn out? And how to start with minimal costs? Processing of walnuts is one of the directions own business, which does not require large financial and labor costs.

How to Start a Walnut Processing Business?

Since ancient times, walnuts have been treated for diseases, they have restored strength, they fed humanity, so there is no doubt that it is in great demand, especially in Europe. Many people buy the nut in various varieties from the population that grows it. But very few people process it. The essence of the business idea that will be discussed is precisely in the peeling of nuts from the shell. After all, the price of a pure, packaged nut is several times higher than its value in the shell.

Processing should begin with the fact that first you need to take these same nuts somewhere. You can, of course, grow them yourself, but you will have to wait 5-6 years before the first harvest. Besides, it's quite a hassle.

Therefore, it is much more promising and profitable to buy nuts than to grow them, all the more so - it is far from a fact that the planted and grown trees will bring a good harvest.

How to choose walnut processing equipment?

Processing itself consists in extracting grain from the shell of a previously split nut. But to crack a nut by hand is a very long and complicated process. Fortunately, technology in our age does not stand still, so you can buy the so-called nutcracker.

This machine splits the shell thanks to two shafts, which are driven by an electric motor through a gearbox. Therefore, the handles will also have to work. We need a staff consisting of 3-5 employees.

You can find a nutcracker (if you search well) at an average price of 700-800 dollars. There are, of course, advanced industrial machines worth 3-5 thousand dollars, but there is no point in buying them, since it simply will not be possible to use their full potential at full capacity.

Also, to organize a walnut processing business, you will need non-residential premises for working and storing purchased raw materials. The ideal option would be the private sector, but in the absence of such, it will be necessary to rent the premises. It should be spacious and heated, because with a good flow of customers, it will be necessary to work all winter.

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How Much Can You Make From a Walnut Processing Business

Walnut processing, the business associated with this activity - we understand further. And now to the most delicious - the calculation of profits. The productivity of the simplest walnut polishing machine is from a centner (100 kg) per hour. But the kernels still need to be pulled out of the shell. One person for a typical eight-hour working day, without particularly straining, is able to sort out 200 kg of nuts. So, with the work of three employees for one month (22 working days), 13.2 tons of finished products(200 kg * 3 people * 22 days = 13200 kg).

Based on the calculation that to obtain 1 kg of peeled nuts, approximately 3 kg of unpeeled nuts will be required, it follows that about 40 tons of nuts will be required for processing, the average cost of which is $ 1 per kg.

You can sell finished grain for $5. The price fluctuates depending on the variety of nuts and the integrity of the processed grain, for example, "butterflies" (halves of the nut kernel) are an order of magnitude more expensive, and grains that do not even have whole quarters are considered the cheapest.
The pay is about 10 cents per kilogram of sorted nuts, or a dollar per 10 kg.

costs per month = 40,000 (buying a nut) + 0.1 * 13,200 (wages) = $ 41,320;
income per month = 5 * 13200 = 66000 dollars.

Total net profit 66000-41320 = $24680 per month!