HOW TO DRY FRUITS?
Recently, at Ekotec Energy, we have been hearing a lot about the fruit drying business. Fruit drying is not as easy as it seems, and if you don't have a market, it can be a business you may never get into. It is not easy to do the fruit drying business with a small team. Because most of the people who want to enter this business are those with fruit orchards who want to add value to their fruits. Picking fruit from the orchard or buying it from the farmer, hiring day laborers to collect the fruit, finding people for the job—should it be seasonal or continuous? Which fruit types will be dried? Will vegetables also be dried when fruits are not available? Or should it be according to the fruit type? We need to ask ourselves these questions before starting the fruit drying business.

For industrial fruit drying, first, we should define our goal. Our ancestors said, “A horse should not be changed while crossing a river.” If you change your goal after starting this business, it can lead to both financial and emotional losses. You should carefully analyze before entering the industrial fruit drying business.

Who is your target? Individuals or companies? Wholesale or retail? Will you be exporting? Will you be working with contract production? How will your hygienic drying process be organized? Will you do small-scale retail or industrial production? How many tons or kilograms of fresh products do you aim to dry daily? Will you store the products in cold storage, or will you buy the fruit in season and dry it immediately? How much can you dry per day if you dry immediately? Will you work in a single shift, or will you work overnight to benefit from industrial electricity discounts? These are just a few of the questions we need to answer. If you have the budget, you can start industrial-scale and set up a fully equipped facility. If your budget is limited, you can start with drying and then move on to other stages. Alternatively, seeking consultancy services might help you make the right steps. It’s best to go step by step.

The flowering of the trees announces the arrival of spring.
With the flowering of the trees and the pollen flying in the air, we can now say spring has come. In February, the almond trees blooming in Datça, with their magnificent display of flowers, almost herald spring for us. As fruits gradually prepare to take their place on the shelves, plums are leading the pack among the fruits that will meet us in April. Thanks to health food experts adding dried fruits to their diet lists, the dried fruit business has gained momentum. Many of us store fruits and vegetables that we cannot consume in time in deep freezers or make preserves. Since ancient times, we have also been drying fruits that are suitable for drying to the amount we need.

With the recent return to nature and the old ways, the questions “organic product?” “Close to nature?” and “Additive-free?” have also come to the forefront. Therefore, when consuming packaged foods, we inevitably encounter preservatives. Dried fruits and vegetables, which have rapidly taken place on the shelves recently, attract our attention as they are hard to keep children away from snack products. Now, we use them in our diets as a snack, as fruit for children's nutrition, to add flavor to cakes, or in cake decorations. When dried hygienically in a natural environment, we consume them with peace of mind.

Fruits and Vegetables by Month

• April: Plum, Asparagus, Fava bean, Artichoke
• May: Cherry, Strawberry, Plum, Garlic, Onion, Asparagus, Artichoke, Fresh Fava
• June: Cherry, Apricot, Strawberry, Sour cherry, Garlic, Tomato, Fresh Potato, Onion, Peas, Fresh Beans
• July: Sour cherry, Eggplant, Garlic, Fresh Potato, Almond, Tomato, Pear, Mulberry, Apricot, Cucumber, Blackberry, Fresh Beans, Onion, Peach, Fig, Chard
• August: Eggplant, Garlic, Fresh Potato, Corn, Tomato, Zucchini, Mulberry, Apricot, Melon, Watermelon, Fresh Beans, Onion, Fresh Borlotti beans, Okra, Chard
• September: Eggplant, Apple, Fresh Potato, Corn, Tomato, Pear, Lemon, Purslane, Pomegranate, Grape, Onion, Celery, Green Pepper
• October: Persimmon, Apple, Fresh Potato, Banana, Zucchini, Leek, Lemon, Tangerine, Pomegranate, Quince, Celery
• November: Kiwi, Pomegranate, Pear, Avocado, Olive, Cauliflower, Celery, Persimmon, Pumpkin
• December: Lemon, Tangerine, Orange, Banana, Radish, Spinach

HOW TO DRY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES?
You can dry them using heat pumps. At Ekotec, we have designed and conducted R&D on a drying unit that allows you to hygienically dry fruits, vegetables, meat products, fish products, bird feed, tarhana, noodles, etc., with ease. We have been sending these units worldwide with easy installation advantages.

Our drying unit operates with a PLC-controlled heat pump. The drying heat pump, mounted in the drying cabinet, utilizes the energy it receives from the air. The fans inside the drying cabinet ensure even distribution of heat. The heat is evenly distributed throughout the cabinet, ensuring that the product placed in each drying tray is uniformly affected. The drying cabinet's room temperature reaches 65°C with the heat pump, and the moisture inside condenses (turns into water) and is expelled outside through the drainage hose. Thanks to the PLC control system, the product you want to dry will be processed according to the recipe entered into the system. If you slice the product with a slicer, the drying process will be completed quickly. Drying with a heat pump saves electricity compared to electric drying ovens. In the drying cabinet, you can dry 500 kg to 1500 kg of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, flowers, aromatic plants per day.

For example, after peeling persimmons, you can place 1500-2000 kg of products in the drying cabinet. If you slice the persimmons, you can place 750-900 kg.

Steps Before Drying
1-) A line should be set up to separate rotten fruits, size them according to their size, and select them according to their type. 2-) The separated fruits should be washed in the washing line. 3-) After washing, they should be sliced to the desired size using a slicing machine. 4-) The sliced fruits should be placed evenly in the drying trays. 5-) The drying trays with the fruits should be arranged in the drying cabinet in 2 layers, with 17 rows placed one above the other. 6-) The drying will proceed according to the recipe entered into the PLC control system, and the heat pump will shut down once the recipe's time is completed.

Fruit and Vegetable Drying Machine Functions

• Heating, drying, and moisture removal

Benefits of Fruit and Vegetable Drying Unit

• Hygienic drying in the drying cabinet
• Space-saving with drying trays
• No environmental pollution during drying
• Aromas released during drying benefit more than harm
• Energy savings with heat pump dryers
• The heat inside is recovered while moisture is expelled
• PLC control allows for recipe input
• Little to no change in taste or color during drying
• Simple installation and operation
• Can run on renewable energy systems, including solar power
• Heat pumps are safe, without risks of explosion, fire, or poisoning
• Faster and healthier drying than other methods
• Easy and fast installation of the drying cabinet, as it is a modular system