Final Products

Straw bale

Required Inputs

Sugarcane straw (could include mixes of other types of agricultural waste)

Competing Products

Low competition
Un-baled bundles of straw of mixed agricultural waste

Potential for Export

Low

Complexity – Type of Process

Simple – mechanical process

Technology

Collection and baling

Equipment and Material

Collector, shredding and baling

Human Resources

Manual labor, agriculture engineers and sales managers

Forward Linkage

Recyclers

Local/Regional/Nationwide

Local market - nationwide

Backward Linkage

Farmers

Supporting Entities

Equipment suppliers and marketing services companies

Competitive Edge

Ease of transportation, lower cost, and more ready-to-use compared to loose straw

Revenue Stream

Sales of baled straws and service fees

CAPEX

Consists of the cost of machinery which would cost around 4.7M EGP

Note: This CAPEX represents the indicative investment size, however, this investment opportunity can grow in implementation to a larger-sized investment.

Investment Size

Small (between 500k-5M EGP)

Key Challenge

Seasonality of supply and supply chain management, absence of dedicated land for agricultural waste pre-processing, access to high-quality suppliers and transportation cost

Advantages

High profit margins, fills gaps within sugarcane cluster

Potential Pathways to Growth

Production of feedstock/final product e.g., straw powder, compost, value-added chemicals/feedstock/composite products, alternative fuels, wood, bricks, packaging

Environmental

Eco-friendly use of agricultural waste

Social

Increases returns on agricultural waste and added value to sugarcane straw, creates job opportunities for unskilled labor

Relevant sub-market

Compost and animal feed

Serving the following value chain/cluster(s)

Sugarcane and agricultural waste

Impact

Fills gaps in pre-processing activities of agricultural waste, promotes value-addition to sugarcane straw