A Study on Development Strategy of A Small-Scale Edible Oil Extractor

Edible oil is one of the five nutrients in daily diet. Taiwan’ edible oil industry is dependent on material imports and market share is dominated by several major brands. Consumers more concern on food safety issues since edible oil scandal. It is very critical for small-scale oil extractors to adjust operation schemes in order to satisfy the needs of consumers.
This paper aims to analyze the development strategies of a small-scale edible oil extractor by presenting a case study in Changhua County. This case constitutes a business strategy through five forces and SWOT analysis, and determines “providing the safety products to fulfill consumers’ needs” as core value. The differential and focus strategies as mentioned in Porter (1985) are chosen. In the functional level, the main improvement plans in production is to replacing a single product a pipeline filter to avoid product contamination. The firm implies raw material source management to strengthen the material inspection and quality control to comply with HACCP. In addition, marketing plans are to create a brand image with competitors to make segmentation, and promote products through more diversified channels such as Internet.
Finally, it is worthy to mention that edible oil industry is close related agriculture sector, which providing raw materials. The government should be more broadly concern the overall benefits from the view of supply chain when conducting trade policy.