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Chapter $7$ Written Assignment $7-22.$By$-$Products and Decision Making; StrategyLowman Gourmet Products produces a wide variety of gourmet coffees $($sold in pounds of roasted beans$),$ jams, jellies, and condiments, such as spicy mustard sauce. The firm had a reputation as a high$-$quality source of these products. Lowman sells the products through a mail$-$order catalog that is revised twice a year. Joe, the president, is interest in developing a new line of products to complement the coffees. The manufacture of the jams and jellies presently produces an excess of fruit liquid that is not used in the products. The firm is now selling excess liquid to other firms as flavoring for canned fruit products. Joe is planning to refine the liquid and add other ingredients to it to produce a coffee$-$flavoring product instead of selling the liquid. He figures that the cost of producing the jams and jellies, and therefore the fruit liquid, is irrelevant; the only relevant concern is the cost of the additional ingredients, processing, and packaging.

How would you evaluate the financial and strategic issues facing Joe in regard to his plan to develop this new line of coffee$-$flavoring products?