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Musa Processing Study conclusions Country reports Methods guide Gallery of businesses  Fiber/India  Flower pickle/India  Chips/Philippines  Chips/Nigeria (pdf)  Dried bananas/Cameroon  Dried bananas/South Africa (pdf)  Sundried banana/Uganda (pdf)  Wine/Malawi  Wine/Tanzania (pdf)  Juice-Beer/Tanzania  Juice/Ghana (pdf)  Paper/Nicaragua  Paper/Uganda (pdf)  Handicraft/Kenya (pdf)   For more information  Pictures  Literature	Strengths and weaknesses  Strengths - Raw material and inputs cheap. As 40% of all the varieties grown in India are suitable for flower pickle production and all varieties for fruit pickle production the raw material is available locally in plenty. - Labour cheap - Process Technology simple for small scale production - All inputs are available locally including the machines and packing material - Shelf life of the product is long - Electricity subsidized - Tax holiday for food processing sector   Weaknesses - As the product is new it needs more publicity and awareness campaign but it’s Small businesses - Lack of professional marketing service providers  Contribution to rural development     Opportunities - The demand for pickles in general is growing and people are vouching for variation in taste and forms from the traditional items - Product has multiple uses unlike others - Cost of production is low compared to other pickles hence it has a competitive edge in market - Scope for export   Threats/Challenges Big companies can marginalize the small businesses through better presentation and publicity. The main challenge faced by this business was the lack of right kind of marketing service. As the product was new, lack of awareness in the market about the product prevented retailers to immediately pick it up. Secondly there were no professional available in the field that could do the promotional activity for the business. So initially though they could successfully start the commercial production and the test marketing results were encouraging, the product movement was slow as it needed pushing into the market. The right kind of marketing support was not available. Ultimately it solved by the manufacturers themselves by evolving innovative strategies like promotional offers and institutional sales. The company has now floated a subsidiary company for marketing of processed and fresh fruits and vegetables with its own outlets. No management services from professional service providers were either available or used.