Overstory #63 - Value-Added Enterprises for Small-Scale Farmers
Editor's Note
Economic viability is an important aspect of the success of agroforestry projects. The last edition of The Overstory introduced seven principles of marketing, with emphasis on wood products from farm forestry. This edition goes further into depth on the subject of value-added enterprises using farm food products to illustrate value-added strategies.
Introduction
Small farmers are under tremendous pressure to develop innovative business strategies to stay afloat. Value-adding is one such strategy that is also a logical extension of many farm businesses and can exploit underutilized farm resources for increased returns. Value-adding offers farmers the potential to capture a larger share of the consumer dollars.
What is value-adding? Value-adding is any step taken to increase the value of a raw product anytime between harvesting and sales of the final product. Typical value-adding includes processing in some way such as cleaning, cutting, packaging, smoking, drying, freezing, extracting, or preserving.