Part 8
Unit economics: the numbers that matter
How to find your cost per pack and why yield decides which vegetables work as a base.
A food processing business lives or dies on unit economics. Before you scale, you must know your cost per unit and the price you aim to sell at.
| Cost item | Your estimate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Raw material per kg of finished product | Base vegetable, psyllium and optional additive | |
| Drying energy | Electricity, gas or solar | |
| Grinding and milling | Equipment cost or rental | |
| Packaging | Moisture-barrier packs, labels, outer boxes | |
| Labour | People who make the product | |
| Overheads | Rent, utilities, admin | |
| Testing and registration | Certificates of analysis, fees, label printing | |
| Total cost per unit | ||
| Target retail price | ||
| Gross margin |
The base vegetable trap: yield
A vegetable can pass every screening criterion and still be a poor base because of yield. Powder yield is the weight of dried, ground powder you get from each kilogram of fresh vegetable. Vegetables with very high water content give a low yield.
Illustrative example only: measure your own yields
Suppose a dense base vegetable gives about 1 kg of powder from 8 to 10 kg fresh, while a leafy vegetable needs about 12 kg fresh for the same 1 kg of powder. The raw material for the leafy product then costs roughly twelve times the fresh price of the leaf, per kilogram of powder, against eight to ten times for the dense one. These numbers are made up to show the logic. Your own drying trials will give the real figures.
That is why dense, lower-water vegetables carry the base role and leafy greens belong in small additive roles.
Know the competition
Find out what similar mixes and ready-made swallow flours cost where you plan to sell, both in local shops and in diaspora online shops. Record the date and the shop for each price, because prices change. If your costs do not let you sell at a competitive price with a healthy margin, either reduce your costs or position the product as a premium one and be ready to justify that.
Exercise 8.1 · Work out your unit economics
- Complete the cost table with your own measured or carefully estimated figures.
- Find at least three competing products and record their prices, shops and dates.
- Work out your gross margin at a price that is competitive. If the margin is thin, revisit your cost assumptions before you spend on branding.
- Measure the powder yield for your chosen vegetable from a real drying trial.