SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FOOD PRODUCTION
Sun-dried aromatic plants and spices for local markets
Market
| Final Products | Dried aromatic plants and spices |
| Required Inputs | Aromatic plants (e.g., caraway, cumin) |
| Competing Products | Low competition Imported dried aromatic plants and other brands in local market |
| Potential for Export | High |
Process
| Complexity – Type of Process | Simple – manual process |
| Technology | Solar drying/hot-air drying |
| Equipment and Material | Racks, nets and packaging materials |
| Human Resources | Manual labor, quality control and food safety specialists |
Business Linkage
| Forward Linkage | Retailers and consumers |
| Local/Regional/Nationwide | Local market - nationwide |
| Backward Linkage | Farmers |
| Supporting Entities | Rack and net suppliers, marketing services companies, testing facilities |
| Competitive Edge |
Provides high-quality dried aromatic plants at low-cost |
Economic Features
| Revenue Stream | Sales of sun-dried aromatic plants |
| CAPEX | starting from 42K EGP depending on scale |
| Investment Size | Micro (less than 500K EGP) Note: This CAPEX represents the indicative investment size, however, this investment opportunity can start from a micro-scale investment and grow in scale to a larger-scale investment. |
Considerations
| Key Challenge | Maintaining high product quality, food safety, access to suppliers, marketing and sales, meeting product specification and standardization, lack of definition of what constitutes activities which can be conducted on farm versus industrial zones (IZ) |
| Advantages | Cost-competitive product and simple technology |
| Potential Pathways to Growth | Production, sales and/or distribution of other types of dried/powder/extracts from medicinal/aromatic plants and herbs for various customer segments (packaged and branded or white label) |
General Impact
| Environmental | Reduces waste of agricultural produce, utilization of sustainable energy and processing material close to the field reduces emissions in transportation |
| Social | Increases returns on agriculture activities and creates job opportunities for both unskilled labor and women |
Impact on Sub-market(s), Cluster(s) and Value Chain(s)
| Relevant sub-market | Dried products |
| Lies within the following value chain/cluster(s) |
Medical/aromatic plants and herbs, food processing and packaging |
| Impact | Promotes value-addition to medical/aromatic plant and herb production |
Studies
| Serial | File name | Download |
| 1 | UNIDO IGGE_VC Cluster Competitiveness & BOM |
