Because the farmers own the co-operative it has no incentive to extract a profit margin, which should maximise benefits to the individual farmer. However, w'hile co-operatives are in principle attractive solutions to the marketing challenge of small-scale farms, they have been found to be difficult to operate due to low volume, large numbers of producers and challenges in maintaining consistent quality. All of these add costs that have to be spread across all producers, which can reduce a farmer’s interest in participation.