PANELA PROJECT

INTRODUCCION

Panela is one of the most consumed foods in Colombian homes, for its low price, taste, nutritional value and offering easy access to this product. This product is part of our tradition, because it has remained throughout history in all its original features (production, shape and quality) for many years, panela has occurred on farms with traditional technology (trapiche).

Panela is the basis of livelihood for many farmers, who produce in small scale units with family labor facing many difficulties to modernize their production and markets expand their markets.

this foodstuff can be considered a whole sweeter preserves most of the compounds presents in sugar canner as it cane juice and therefore, it is expected that its traditional.

WHAT IS PANELA?

Panela is a type of unrefined sugar that is extracted from sugarcane in Colombia. Although many countries around the world use unrefined sugar the name panela is unique to Colombia and surrounding areas. Commonly sold in hard, flat case, it is an expensive and reality available, the most Colombian it is wed primary desserts and syrups including a drink called Aguapanela   that is very popular in the region. The unrefined in Colombia, which is the second largest producer of the unrefined whole sugar cane   in the world behind India.

PROCESS

Panela is made from the juice of the sugarcane after boiling and the evaporation. We learnt how the local people work with the cane sugar. For that reason Panela process is too easy, it does not need a scientific step for its production because is prepared in farms and could say that is an artisanal product. Then we will explain the steps necessary for the preparation of this famous product in our country Colombia.

First of all they collect all the sugar cane from the field.

Second they introduce the sugar cane in a machine called trapiche, which separate the cane from the juice. After this, they boil the liquid in different hoppers with different temperature.

Then, the exacted juice is boiled until it reaches the hard ball stage; it is poured into molds and allowed to cool.

 PRODUCTION

The second producer of panela is Colombia (about 1.4 million tons / year), where sugarcane production is One of the most important Economic Activities. In Colombia, the panela industry is an important source of employment, with About 350.000 people working in nearly 20.000 trapichess (panela farms).

This product is produced predominantly in the rural economy, the basic economy of 236 municipalities in 12 nation departments.

An estimated 70.000 cultivate sugarcane farm which generates more than 25 million in wages annually, around 35000 employing people, or 12% of the rural economically active population, making it the second largest employer after for coffee agricultural production.

CONCLUSION

Panela has represented for a long time the economic livelihood of the rural households over 12 departments and 236 municipalities of our precious homeland, therefore this product is listed as one of the main economic activities of the Colombian population. Panela is an important line of local agricultural production in terms of participation in the value of production, employment, areas used in sugarcane and participation in household spending, among others. The sugarcane is a crop with a great capacity to adapt to the diverse ecosystems of the country, which have allowed it to expand constantly its borders and use land unsuitable for other crops.

The research development of sugarcane production was possible to determine that most Colombian households use it as the main sweetening ingredient, considering that there are others products which can be used to replace sugar cane, but it excels by its natural consistency and the process requires no scientific or chemical ingredients therefore, this is a natural product. The development of this product is usually on farms that have crops of sugar cane and it does not necessarily require a technician or professional to perform the process, it just requires the willingness of experts who have learned empirically the process of the villagers themselves in rural region, although they receive technical assistance to agricultural producers associations to improve productivity, quality and hygiene control.

One of the biggest problems facing sugarcane production is the development of new products that advance slowly, especially alternative uses of sugarcane (animal feed, fuel alcohol, intake of the food industry, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, etc.) also strongly affects the market behavior. Creating new products with sugar cane juice was triggered panela prices, because it was previously possible to get a piece of panela approximately fifty percent cheaper.