Processing does not automatically mean profit
Adding a grader, a dryer or a mill increases realisation per kilogram, but it also adds electricity, labour, packaging, wastage and working capital locked in inventory. Many units add all the cost and capture only part of the price premium because they sell in bulk to the same trader they sold raw produce to.
The four numbers to track weekly
Yield ratio (raw input to saleable output), cost per finished unit, days of working capital, and realised price per unit by channel. If a founder can quote these four numbers from memory, the business is usually already stabilising.
Channel is where the margin lives
The same packet of processed millet can earn very different margins through a mandi trader, an FPO aggregator, an urban retailer or a direct-to-consumer order. We push cohort companies to run one small, measured pilot in a higher-margin channel before scaling capacity.
