Estimation of Cost for Preparation of Danadar From Cow Milk

Danadar is a famous Chhana based traditional dairy product of West Bengal which is liked by almost every one. The marketing success of a new product exists on the economic feasibility of manufacturing process. Cost estimation for commercialization of any food product is very crucial. In view of this, an attempt was made to estimate the cost of the developed product through project evaluation, plant design, product pricing, process optimization and other techno economic studies. The cost of different components used in the manufacture of Danadar at Faculty of Dairy Technology, Nadia, W.B. was taken as on September, 2016. In order to arrive at a reasonable realistic cost of processing and that of the end product, certain assumptions were made. The cost of production of Danadar was worked out considering the costs of all the inputs (fixed and variable costs) for a production capacity of 1000 kg/day. It was assumed that the Danadar plant would be operated in one shift of 8 h each for 300 days in a year. The cost of the raw materials used, has been worked out on the prevailing market prices. The finished product would be packaged in PS tray within a cardboard box with a capacity of 500 g. It was found that the product could be manufactured at Rs. 130.00 per kg (including packaging), which appeared to be reasonably competitive considering the prevalent market price of this traditional product.