| Abstract | This study was conducted to analyze the principle characteristics of small, medium and large
pineapple canneries and proposes a dedicated method to assess the performance of pineapple
canneries progressing towards sustainable development, by using suitable sustainability
indicators comprising three basic sustainable dimensions namely economic, social and
environmental aspects. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach and Weight Average
Index (WAI) are applied to outline a basis for comparing sustainability indices of pineapple
canneries. It is proposed to demonstrate the application of the developed method through
comparison of three sizes of pineapple canneries concerning their relative performances. Nine
selected canneries were surveyed out of a total of thirteen in Prachubkhirikhan, which is the
largest canned pineapple production province in Thailand.
The study shows that pineapple canneries differed in principle characteristics and
performances towards sustainable development among the three sizes. The maximum
processing capacity of small canneries is between 70,000-80,000 tons, medium canneries are
around 90,000-100,000 tons, and large canneries are between 140,000-200,000 tons pineapple
input. The pineapple cannery has 2-5 production lines for: pineapple juice, pineapple jam,
dried pineapple and mixing with other fruits as mixed fruit product, but they essentially
produce canned pineapple product. The variation in canneries’ activities directly corresponds
to the potential to achieve sustainable development.
Most activities of large size canneries scored the highest performance values, followed by
medium and small sizes respectively. Most of the economic and social activities of large are
better than those of medium and small canneries. The best performance on financial health is
the main advantage of the large cannery, resulting more financial flexibility for installing
modern technologies, having more production lines, higher budget for R&D, creating product
innovation. Medium canneries were the best in decreasing production cost, including costs of
pineapple, can, water, energy and transportation. For social dimension, in this study, it was
specific on three actors in social system including employees, pineapple suppliers and
communities surrounding canneries. The large cannery reveals the best performance in this
dimension. Most complains from communities are often about dissatisfaction on price of
pineapple purchasing, air pollution and water contamination, especially in rainy season due to
overflowing wastewater pond, reflecting to unpleasant ador of organic waste spread out to
communities. It is noted that the large canneries often take immediate responsibility and
leadership in addressing these issues. However, medium and small canneries have higher
values on some performances than large canneries, especially in term of environmental
performances: raw material used and waste management. Although large cannery installs
modern technologies, they prefer to produce premium grade of canned product without paying
attention to fruit loss from processing. As the result, large canneries have higher waste
generation per ton canned product than medium canneries. Moreover, large canneries pay
more attention with higher research budget on product development than medium and small
canneries. It should be recognized that irrespective of their size, performances of all canneries
need to be studied simultaneously to make a better understanding of pineapple canning
industry, and find out the guidance to improve the canneries’ performances from raw material
procurement to marketing stages towards sustainable development. |