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D-commodity-trap Dictionary

Commodity trap

Selling an undifferentiated product at whatever price the market sets

All termsIntroduced in Module 8Open the Toolkit
An open dictionary on a farm office desk
Plain meaning
Selling an undifferentiated product at whatever price the market sets
How to use it
If the product is undifferentiated, find a way to differentiate it by quality, timing, packaging or buyer relationship, or accept that price will be set by others.
South African benchmark
Article 124 contrasts South African bulk commodities with branded, differentiated products.
Country notes
Applies the same way in all five markets.
Go and read
C8 Lesson 8.2
Calculate it
No calculator; the term is applied in the venture plan narrative.
Library sources
LIB-A124
See also
Value-add, Provenance
Value-add steps from raw crop to packed product with rising valueValue-add: each step multiplies what the crop is worthx 1.0Raw cropx 1.3Cleaned and gradedx 2.0Processedx 3.0Packed and brandedIllustrative multipliers: each step also adds cost, skills and equipment.
From Module 8, Value-Add and Processing, where this term is introduced.

Introduced in C8 Value-Add and Processing.