Cluster 6 of 28. Ideas 121 to 150
Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
The mechanism
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average export price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The 30 ideas
- 121Organic farm-to-table restaurants using genuinely local produce
- 122Single-origin chocolate using Sri Lankan spices
- 123Ceylon coffee roasteries
- 124Herbal tea ranges: cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger
- 125Coconut-based dessert cafés and product lines
- 126King coconut water, bottled and branded for export
- 127Premium chilli sauces, chutneys and preserves
- 128Fusion pop-ups and supper clubs
- 129Luxury picnic catering at heritage sites
- 130Spice oils and extracts rather than raw spice
- 131Value-added cinnamon: ground, capsuled, oil, branded consumer packs
- 132Jaffna crab and cuttlefish curry as a chilled export dish for the Sri Lankan shops abroad
- 133Freeze-dried tropical fruit (mangosteen, rambutan, mango and pineapple) as snacks for European and Gulf supermarkets
- 134Hoppers and string-hopper mixes that work in a foreign kitchen
- 135Kithul treacle and jaggery as a named origin sweetener, the way maple syrup is Canadian, with a range of recipes and ready products that use it in place of white sugar, each tested for its glycaemic index so the label can say what it does
- 136Ceylon arrack as a premium spirit with a distillery tour, the way whisky is sold in Scotland
- 137Craft beer and cider from local fruit for the tourist towns
- 138Wood-apple, soursop and passion-fruit juices and sorbets for export
- 139A fine-dining Sri Lankan restaurant in London or New York aiming for a Michelin star, the flagship that makes the whole cuisine premium
- 140Curry-leaf, pandan and gotukola as frozen and dried herbs for European retail
- 141A Sri Lankan rice brand: red rice, suwandel and the heritage varieties, in retail packs abroad
- 142Ready meals for Sri Lankans abroad, cooked in Sri Lanka, frozen and shipped in bulk
- 143A cookbook and video series in English that becomes the standard reference, with the products linked
- 144Vanilla, since it grows here, cured and graded to the Madagascar standard
- 145Pepper as a single-estate product with the estate's name on the jar
- 146Cocoa from the wet zone processed into bean-to-bar chocolate on the island
- 147Jackfruit as a meat substitute for the vegan markets of Europe, canned and frozen
- 148Sea salt from the Puttalam and Hambantota pans, flaked and branded
- 149Buffalo curd and treacle sold as a chilled dessert in the Gulf supermarkets
- 150A Sri Lankan food hall in one European city, run as a showcase and a wholesaler at once