SEGMENT

After understanding that African farmers had limited resources for agriculture and required
inexpensive ways to grow crops. Our decision to segment specifically Liberia focused on the
categorization of farmers based on their age, sex, economic dependency and education. Liberian
farmers are the only support for the livelihood of their households, many of which are only males
and only hold an elementary level of learning.

The attraction for potato production in Africa is large, as the potato provides nutritious food
quick, uses less land and can survive best through extreme climate changes. A huge concern is
food security, scarcity and finding land mass for farming. In Liberia, agriculture struggles with
little productivity from the lack in technology, pest management and limited amounts of
fertilizers. When African farmers' crops are plentiful, they feel comfort in being able to afford to
buy other necessities for their families. If an entire potato crop was wiped, it leaves Liberians
nutrition and wealth absent. There are no safety nets or government support to provide loans to
Liberian farmers.
 
The five specific concerns for potato improvement within Liberia’s segment include controlling
fungal disease, viruses, improved genetic material for stable yields, better quality potato seed,
and control of bacteria wilt. Cavendish Agri’s comprehensive growing services would be able to
address this segment’s needs by focusing on bringing their advanced farming technologies to
combat lack in availability for land through intensifying inputs for production and raising income
levels for the families of Liberians who are dependant on the male figures.
 
Attractiveness of the Target Market

The agriculture sector in Africa is the least productive in the world, with a productivity rate of 36
percent. The attractiveness of our target market was supported by this when the developing
world’s potato production exceeded the developed world, dating back to 2005. Root vegetables
are in large demand throughout Africa all year, making agriculture the leading livelihood for
over 60 percent of Liberia. The farmers are amongst the poorest in the world, making them
unable to maximize their crop, thus making it attractive for Cavendish to introduce a modern
agricultural technology.

The high nutrient content of potatoes, ease of cultivation, and low cost are what make potatoes
one of the most important foods for income in underdeveloped countries. In the late 1900s
ownership of land switched from all people in a particular village to lands being operated by
individuals, so that farmers could grow crops to generate income from increased exports from
the country. The problem with this was that it created shortages of basic food requirements for
the local community. This reversed the government’s goal of increasing exports, by actually
driving imports up as the supply of food was in higher demand.

Implementing Cavendish farming would allow Liberian farmers to produce enough potatoes to
support their family and freeze into products to export for restaurants and countries that
Cavendish supplies their potato products for. Cavendish will provide top quality fertilizer, crop
protectants, precision farming, storage management and equipment to protect the effects of any
climate change and disease outbreaks.
 
Competitive Advantage
 
There are many companies who could offer farming practices, such as McCain, Lamb Weston
Holdings and Kraft Heinz. All producing and delivering frozen potato products worldwide. The
major advantage of Cavendish Agri, is their commitment to sustaining the environment through
embracing high environmental standards. They were the first in the potato industry to convert
waste into bio-methane gas, which is taking potato material waste and converting it into usable
energy. This new biogas facility has reduced their carbon footprint by 35 percent, requiring less
trucks for bringing fuel and the removal of waste from the plant, and created an organic and
natural fertilizer to be used on the fields.
 
Cavendish experts also developed the Russet Prospect potato that required less fertilizer and soil
fumigation. This Prospect means that farmers receive more pay per acre, and can grow more
with less land required – an important fact for the limited land available in Liberia.
 
In addition, Cavendish Agri is complete with a team of crop advisors, researchers and equipment
operators who can teach and train Liberian farmers to farm smarter. In contrast, the competitive
advantage of Cavendish with competing companies can be justified as they are not building
production plants in Liberia, but introducing new farming technologies and practices. Unlike
McCain Foods who has two plants in Africa, Cavendish is focusing on maintaining the small
amount of land they have, instead of building on to grow their export market. Although McCain
may be contributing to the export income of Africa, they still remain restricting imports to Africa
as they don’t serve the African food scarcity market with their products.

A final point to consider is that Cavendish only operates in Canada, mainly in PEI, thus their
attention can remain uninterrupted to the farmers of Liberia, without requiring the need to
control their business processes and plants worldwide like other big name brands.