Abstract |
This feasibility study was conducted to determine the viability of a fruit juice concentrate processing enterprise located at Magomero, Malawi. The feasibility of the proposed enterprise was assessed in four core areas namely market and financial feasibility, technical feasibility, resource and environmental feasibility and social and institutional feasibility. A market opportunity was identified for the domestic production of good quality fruit juice concentrates in Malawi to be sold to manufacturers in the growing fruit juice nectar producing sector in Malawi. The analysis of the financial feasibility of the proposed enterprise revealed that (based on the assumptions that were made) the enterprise is potentially profitable, is projected to have a healthy cash flow and is viable over the longer term. As a result of a lack in a comprehensive analysis of the current natural resources that are available in Malawi this feasibility study has made a number of assumptions regarding the environmental and/or natural resource feasibility of the enterprise. Based on the limited information it was concluded that the proposed enterprise could be environmentally feasible. Processing technology that is ideally suited to the specific technical requirements of the proposed processing enterprise at Magomero, Malawi is available. The location at Magomero is ideally suited to the establishment of a processing enterprise of this nature since it is reasonably well located with regards to resources, input supplies and access to distribution channels. Taking the net social benefit of the proposed processing enterprise into consideration it can be concluded that the processing enterprise is anticipated to be socially and institutionally feasible. Surrounding communities would benefit in a number of direct and indirect ways from the establishment of the proposed enterprise. Based on the framework set out in this feasibility study it can be concluded that the proposed processing enterprise at Magomero is feasible. This positive result of the feasibility analysis is, however, heavily dependant upon the assumptions made during the study and on conditions (political, environmental, economical etc.) remaining relatively stable within the enterprise’s operating environment. If either the assumptions or the operating environment were to differ substantially from actual circumstances the actual feasibility of the processing enterprise at Magomero could differ from the current result. |