I don’t understand what is novel here. Anything that you have to pay for today (making new cheese) and recoup the costs at a later date (selling aged cheese) wi

I don’t understand what is novel here. Anything that you have to pay for today (making new cheese) and recoup the costs at a later date (selling aged cheese) will mean that a lot of money is “locked up” for a period of time, and in order to pay for day-to-day work you’ll need even more money to last you until the product is sold. If you don’t want to bear 100% of the risk you turn to the financial markets to sell some of the product today (futures contract) or borrow the money to pay back later. Edit: Ah, the value is marketing for the bank: > “[Operating a cheese aging facility] allows Credem to be perceived as a bank that cares about the community, cares for the region, and cares for the producers,” he says. “Lending is something that people don’t really like in Italy. They think of usury, going back to Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Many people still perceive lenders and banks that way. So for a bank to be able to set up this infrastructure, and to showcase their value to the community, it’s significant.” Edit 2: Parmesan Cheese Price Graphs: https://www.clal.it/en/?section=prod_prezzi_parmigiano https://www.clal.it/en/?section=prod_prezzi_parmigiano