§1What this business is

Milk is received, chilled, boiled down in a gas-fired kettle with sugar, homogenised and aged. Custard apple pulp is mixed in, the mix is filled in moulds, hardened, de-moulded, sealed and held in deep freezers. The DPR costs custard apple at ₹30 a kg, sugar at ₹32 and milk at ₹45, and a sale price of ₹250 a kg.

Capacity: 150 tonnes of kulfi a year (500 kg a day), 300 working days of 8–10 hours. Year 1 is for construction; use is 70% in Year 2, 80% in Year 3 and 90% from Year 4. Ripe fruit needed: 150, 170 and 190 kg a day.

§2Is it right for you?

Who it is for

A dairy or ice-cream maker in a custard-apple belt such as Maharashtra, Telangana or Madhya Pradesh.

Who it is not for

Someone without reliable power and freezer transport.

Advantages

  • Sitaphal flavour is popular and few brands make it
  • Pulp can be frozen in season and used all year
  • High mark-up over milk, sugar and fruit cost

Drawbacks

  • Needs an unbroken freezer chain up to the shop
  • Sales fall sharply in winter
  • Custard apple pulp is slow to separate from seeds
  • Power cuts can melt stock

Skills you need

  • Milk handling and testing
  • Boiling down and freezing kulfi mix
  • Cold-chain management
  • Selling to parlours and retailers

Why difficulty 3/5: Dairy hygiene and a frozen supply chain need care; the DPR's cost figures also do not fully agree.

§3Market

Who buys

  • Ice-cream parlours and sweet shops
  • Caterers, hotels and restaurants
  • Retail shops with freezers

How it sells

  • Direct delivery in insulated boxes
  • Distributors with freezer vans
  • Own carts or kiosk

Good to know

  • The DPR assumes a sale price of ₹250 a kg.

§4Raw material & machinery

ItemQtyCost
Cold store1₹4.2 lakh
Milk receiving analysis set1₹0.9 lakh
Online homogeniser, 200 litres an hour1₹2.4 lakh
Stainless-steel cans8₹0.32 lakh
Bulk milk chiller, 1,000 litre1₹2.4 lakh
Gas-fired rotating milk boiling kettle, 300 litre1₹2.1 lakh
Ageing tank, 300 litre1₹2.3 lakh
Alloy kulfi moulds (24 per set)20₹2.4 lakh
Kulfi hardening tank1₹3.6 lakh
De-moulding tank, 60 litre1₹0.45 lakh
Continuous sealer1₹0.36 lakh
Deep freezer (−18°C), 600 litre2₹0.9 lakh

From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Custard Apple Kulfi

  • Ripe custard apple₹30 a kg; 150–190 kg a day
  • Milkcosted at ₹45 a kg
  • Sugarcosted at ₹32 a kg
  • Packaging material₹7 per kg of kulfi

From: NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Custard Apple Kulfi

§5Licences & registration

  1. Udyam registration
  2. GST registration
  3. FSSAI licence or registration
  4. Legal Metrology registration for packaged goods
  5. Trade licence from the local body
  6. State Pollution Control Board consent where applicable

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§6Schemes & subsidies

The DPR is written for PMFME (35% credit-linked subsidy, up to ₹10 lakh, for micro food units). PMEGP is another route for a new unit of this size, and CGTMSE can back the bank loan without collateral.

§7Money

How the investment is worked out: Land and building ₹6.66 L + plant and machinery ₹21.43 L + utilities ₹2.20 L + other fixed assets ₹0.90 L + pre-operative ₹0.90 L + contingencies ₹1.00 L + working capital margin ₹0.25 L = ₹33.34 lakh, as printed in the project summary. The DPR's own machinery list adds up to ₹22.33 L, and its working capital table shows a 25% margin of ₹8.37 L, so the real need is higher.

Working capital: Bank working capital of ₹25.10 L in Year 2, ₹28.69 L in Year 3 and ₹36.88 L in Year 4; the working capital gap is ₹33.47 L in Year 2, mostly 30 days of receivables.

Year not printed on the DPR (the PMFME scheme began in 2020) — check current machinery prices.

How to prepare a loan file

§8Export potential

Export council / board: APEDA

  • The DPR gives no export costing; an exporter needs an IEC and registration with the export body before shipping.

§9Risks — where people fail

  • Milk or pulp contamination
  • Freezer breakdown
  • Seasonal fall in demand
  • Competition from big ice-cream brands

§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan

A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.

  1. Days 1–30: Visit a working custard apple (sitaphal) kulfi unit unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
  2. Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (Udyam registration, GST registration), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
  3. Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.

§11Who to connect with

§12Watch

There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.

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Sources

  1. NIFTEM-Thanjavur (IIFPT) PMFME model DPR — Custard Apple Kulfi

Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.