Why you should invest in sugar cane juice machine

Most fruits are blended for juice. The same cannot be said of sugar cane whose juice can only be obtained by physically peeling and chewing.  

With the new technology in the sugar cane juice extractor, you can now extract sugar cane juice without going through the hustle of first having to peel.  

Denis Ecingo, the sales and marketing officer at The Tamales at Lweza ,explains that the sugar cane juice extractor is relatively new technology in Uganda that has not yet been embraced by farmers.

How the machine works
To obtain clean juice, you have to wash the sugar cane well. The cane should not only be of an arm’s length from your elbow but it should also be split into two halves, however small it could be so that it is easily fed into the machine rotating jaws, as sugar cane sizes vary. There’s also no need for peeling. Ecingo says you can as well keep the sugar canes in the fridge before you extract the juice.

“The machine internally carries out the squeezing of the sugar cane to extract the juice. It (juice) is tapped from one end of the machine and the residues are ejected from a different outlet. By splitting the sugar cane, the mortar is not overworked and this ensures longer lifespan of the machine,” Ecingo explains.

“As the sugar cane is fed into the machine, you can as well feed it with lemon, oranges, ginger or beet root at the same time if you want to have a cocktail of fruits. The beet root adds the natural colour and taste to the juice,” he adds.

However, when you mix sugar cane juice with beet root, it is important to explain to your customers so that it is not mistaken for watermelon.

Production capacity
When using the sugar cane juice extractor, it is hard, if not impossible, to determine production in terms of litres. Different sugar cane types from different regions have varying amounts of juice. This is also dependent on the season of the year. For instance, during the dry season, sugar cane tends to have low juice amounts, unlike rainy seasons or low lying areas where the juice amounts are a bit high.

According to Ecingo, the machine is capable of crushing 300 kilogrammes per hour if the operator is fast because it is partly manually operated.  

“If you intend to operate the machine individually, you should prepare and split the sugar cane and other accompanying fruits in big amounts so that when you start feeding them into the machine, it is nonstop. You also have to have a big juice collection container,” 

Ecingo advises  
The sugar cane juice extractor is a 750 watts machine and runs on single phase power of 220volts. This, according to Ecingo, is smaller than what a flat iron consumes. It comes in different sizes and can be used both domestically and commercially. It takes up very small space that it can be kept in your home kitchen. The smallest version is manual and costs Shs1.8m while the second and third versions, both electrical, cost Shs3.5m and Shs4m respectively.  

A glass of sugar cane juice could cost between Shs3,000 to Shs5,000 depending on where you sell it. You do not need to add sugar or water because sugar canes are naturally sweet even if you mix it with ginger. The cost of running the machine is cheaper yet the final product is profitable,” Ecingo says.

Maintenance
Apart from ensuring that you feed the machine with washed sugar cane, you also have to carry out regular greasing in the pulley system after every two weeks. It comes with aftersales services and training on how it operates.  

After extracting juice, you have to splash water into the machine immediately after use so that the sugar cane juice does not stick within the machine interior. You also have to remove the extraction trough and rinse or wash it well with water. If you leave it unwashed for long, Ecingo says there is a possibility of the juice fermenting and developing a bad odour, making it uncomfortable to drink.  

Fact - Valuable
Although ‘raw’ sugar is the main product of sugarcane, there are a host of other uses for the plant. The left-over fibre from the stalk called bagasse, is used to generate electricity.

Molasses is also used as a raw material for ethanol and rum.