This is true of almost all commodity processing industries. Since usually everyone is using mostly the same processes, and paying largely the same price for their inputs, there is no differentiation and thus no profit in the base processing. Where people start to make money is to find a market for the by-product, and, particularly if the by-product has low bulk value, site a processing plant for the by-product next door to the main plant.
Absolutely. My sister works for a company that ships byproducts such as cow hearts and brains over to Europe where apparently there is a pretty big market for the stuff that we're too finicky to eat here in the US.
