Fab Suffrage

Starting a Business: Balut Making

Balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) eff with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten while inside the shell. They are common everyday food in some countries in Southeast Asia, such as in the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is popularly to be an aphrodisiac and is considered a high-protein, hearty snack. Balut is mostly sold by street vendors.

  1. ESTIMATED INVESTMENT COST
    1. Cost of Materials and Equipment
      • Bamboo Basket – P150.00
      • Plastic Basket 3pcs @20/pc – P60.00
      • Coco cloth 3 yards @40/yard – P120.00
      • Rice, 20kg @15/kg – P300.00
      • Subtotal – P630.00
    2. Raw Materials
      • Duck Eggs, 100pcs @ 6/pc – P600.00
      • Estimated Total Investment Cost – P1,230.00
  2. PROCEDURE
    1. Select eggs that are fit for incubation. Eggs should come from mated flocks, and should not be more than 5 days old. They should have thick shells without any cracks.
    2. Preheat the selected eggs under the sun for 3-5 hours.
    3. Heat some unpolished rice in an iron cauldron or vat (large kettle) until it reaches a temperature of about 42 degrees C (107 – 108 Degrees F).
    4. Put 100 to 125 eggs into a large cloth made if either abaca (sinamay) or coco cloth
    5. Place a layer of heated rice at the bottom of a cylindrical bamboo basket incubator (45cm in diameter and 60cm depth), and place a bag of eggs on the rice. Alternate the eggs will fit into the basket. Bamboo baskets can be arranged either in a single row along the wall of the balutan. Firmly tamp down rice husk between baskets as insulators.
    6. Turn the eggs at least 2-3 times a day.
    7. Heat the rice in the morning and in the afternoon on cool days.
    8. Candle the eggs on the 7th, 14th, and 18th day to select the infertile eggs, i.e. dead embryo on first candling.
    9. The infertile eggs are removed. The fertile ones, those containing a normal embryo, are boiled hard and sold as balut for snacks.
  3. ESTIMATED COSTING AND PRICING (for 1 piece of Balut)
    1. Product costing  
      • Direct cost
        • Subtotal (100 duck effs @6/pc – P600.00
        • Labor – P7.64
        • Total direct cost – P607.64
      • Indirect cost
        • Water (220 consumption/100eggs/22days – P0.10
        • Electricity Consumption (P750/100 eggs/22 days) – P0.34
        • Contingency Cost (10% of the direct cost) – P60.76
        • Total Indirect Cost – P61.20
      •  Production cost
        • Total direct cost – P607.64
        • Add: Total Indirect Cost – P61.20
        • TOTAL = p668.84/100 Eggs
        • Estimated Production Cost per Egg P6.68
    2. Product Pricing
        • Production cost per egg – P6.68
        • Add 20% of Mark-up – P1.33
        • Estimated Selling Price per Piece – P8.01
        • Market Price/Piece – P8.00-P10.00

Note: the higher the volume of production per day (more than 100 eggs) the lower the production cost, thus increasing the mark-up to more than 20%

If the price per kilogram is lower compared with the existing market price, increase mark-up to 205 or more.

Source: www.dti.gov.ph

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