Idea 106 of 500. Cluster 5: Wellness, which we are famous for and barely sell
Traditional hair oil production, branded and exported
The mechanism, from the book
Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs is more of its own names, known and asked for abroad.
Every idea in cluster 5 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Take a family hair-oil recipe you already know and make 50 bottles with a plain, clear label listing every ingredient. Contact a Sri Lankan grocer in London or Toronto through their shop's social page and ask whether they would take a trial carton on sale or return. Send photos of the bottle and label first. A shop that agrees to stock it gives you a real shelf price.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocer abroad whose customers know the oil from home and cannot find a version they trust.
- What leaves today
- Hair oil made at home for generations earns nothing abroad, because the recipe has never been bottled, labelled and put on a foreign shelf.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
The island's resources, counted - Ch. SeventeenOne Building
The showcase that lists ayurveda among 100 to 300 Sri Lankan brands
Idea 106 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.