Feasibility Studies
- Agribusiness Services
- Agricultural R&D
- Design Services
- Field Engineering
- Irrigation Systems and Management
- Knowledge Transfer
- Performance Improvement – Agriculture
- Performance Improvement – Factory
- Project Development – Agriculture
- Feasibility Studies
- Project Management – Factory
- Smallholder Farmers
- Sugar Factory Services
- Sugarcane Irrigation
Over the past 75 years, Booker Tate has conducted numerous feasibility studies for sugarcane-based agro-industrial projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Central and South America.
A feasibility study is an in-depth examination of the technical feasibility and financial viability of the proposed project. The capital and operating costs are based on the physical and operating parameters of the project and are built up from first principles. The feasibility study would usually integrate all aspects of the project including factory, agriculture, financial, markets, staffing, organisation and management.
A feasibility study may therefore include an assessment of the following key components:
Natural resources, including topography, soils, water, climate and land suitability. The information is used to model expected crop productivity and the shape, size and physical characteristics of the project.
Agronomy, including suitable varieties, pest and disease issues, seedcane planning and propagation, fertiliser and herbicide requirements and research and development facilities.
Agricultural production, including an agricultural development plan and identification of sustainable production systems appropriate to the project.
- Field mechanisation, including capital and operating cost estimates for appropriate land development, crop husbandry, harvesting and haulage fleets.
- Communities, including development models for local out-growers, community uplift projects and appropriate donor funding strategies.
- Environment, including compliance with lenders’ and governmental environmental standards and environment management plans.
- Markets, including product mix, pricing, marketing strategies and logistics.
- Factory, including product and co-product definition, process flow design, mass balances, factory specification, power management, packaging, storage and effluent and waste treatment.
- Human resources, including manpower planning and costs, employment numbers, organisational charts and training.
- Infrastructure, including roads, social infrastructure and employee housing and facilities.
- Financial analysis, including funding structures, capital and operating costs, financial modelling, sensitivity analysis and derivation of key economic indicators such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
The main outputs of the study are typically a ‘Development Plan’, which provides a blue print for the implementation of the project, and a ‘Bankable Document’ that can be used in the process of raising debt and/or equity for the project.
Booker Tate can tailor and conduct the feasibility study to the particular requirements of each client.
