Joint product
A joint product is one of two or more products with significant sales value that emerge together from a shared process and only become separable at the split-off point.
See it move
A single process yields 3,000 kg of a premium output selling at €40 per kg, worth €120,000, and 500 kg of a secondary output selling at €2 per kg, worth €1,000. Against the combined €121,000, the secondary output is only about 0.8% of total value — far too small to rank as a second joint product, so it is treated as a by-product instead.
Check yourself
A dairy processor spends €72,000 on one processing run that yields, at the split-off point, 4,000 kg of cheese sold at €30 per kg and 600 kg of whey sold at €3 per kg. What share of total sales value does the whey represent, and how should it be classified?