Alcoholic Farmer

ProHub Comment

This case teaches the critical lesson that profit per unit (acre) is not the sole optimization criterion—demand constraints matter equally. While agave yields $12,000/acre (highest), the farmer can only use 4 acres due to limited annual demand (800 tons). The candidate must balance unit profitability against capacity constraints to maximize total profit across 20 acres.

Estimated Time 15 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source Queen's
50 / 100
Your client is a farmer. He has recently inherited 20 acres of land from a distant relative. Since he has little business knowledge, he has hired you to determine how to get the most profit out of the land.

Clarifying Information

  1. The land location does not impact the case
  2. Yes, it is extremely arable
  3. The farmer wants to farm the land, not use it for any possible alternative (leasing, partitioning, or selling for development)
  4. The farmer is a simple person and simply wants to earn a profit from the inherited land
  5. No specific definition of success beyond earning profit