How to set up a small coconut oil factory

Situation: You are an OFW, and let’s say you have 5K dollars in savings; and you plan to set up your small coconut oil factory in your home province as your family is a small coconut farmer. This is ideal if you also plan to buy and sell copra, as you will have unlimited supply of copra for your small coconut oil factory. This small approach is for starters – expand and grow big later once you mastered the ins and outs of this business. Before embarking into this business, due diligence is needed. Do your own investigation and research. This is a rough guide on how to go about this business. 

Steps:

1.    Source your additional financing. Department of Labor is providing loans to OFWs; also banks and cooperatives. You have to do this to have a bigger operating capital than 5K dollars.

2.    Construct a small warehouse or bodega where you will set up the coconut oil presser, and oil packaging. If you already have an ideal location and structure, then great as you will be able to save your capital. If you do not have one, you will probably spend 1 to 2K dollars for the construction (land cost excluded). Use common sense in your factory layout.

3.    Get your coconut oil press machine. You can perhaps buy this locally or purchase this from China –online. They will ship the machine to your nearest port. Get the affordable machines that offer 1 year warranty on parts.  Possible cost: 1 to 3K dollars. Examples are shown below, more selection for the machines are on a link below.

4.    Test the oil product for quality, visit DOST for assistance. Of course, you will have to get business / permits from DTI and the usual paper works. 

5.    You can opt to sell the coconut oil product in your locality. If you plan to package it – you can buy plastic bottles (mineral water sizes) and plastic sealer – this will cost you, probably  P1 to 2 pesos per bottle depending on size, while the large plastic container will cost P30-40 pesos.  DOST and DTI can help you on this aspect as well.

Note: you can use the copra meal by product into poultry or hog feeds or you can sell them to a copra meal buyer. We will cover this in a separate post.

Goodluck

Here is how a small coconut press machine works.

Sites that can help:

Coconut oil press machines:
 http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=coconut+oil+extract+machine

Plastic bottles:
http://www.sulit.com.ph/index.php/view+classifieds/id/8795008/PET+Bottle+-+Plastic+Container+Manufacturer+-+Lowest+Price!!!?referralKeywords=plastic+bottle+manufacturer&event=Search+Ranking,Position,1-1,1#imageGallery