Idea 121 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Organic farm-to-table restaurants using genuinely local produce
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
Every idea in cluster 6 uses this mechanism.
A first step
List 10 farmers within an hour of you who grow without chemicals and would sell to you weekly, with what each grows month by month. Cook a set dinner using only their produce, name each farm on the menu, and sell 12 seats through a guesthouse nearby. If the seats sell above the price of an ordinary tourist meal and the farmers want to supply again, you have both ends.
- Who pays first
- A visitor who wants to eat what the island actually grows, and will pay more when the farm's name is on the menu.
- What leaves today
- When the visitor's meal money does not reach the farm, the island's produce stays anonymous and its farmers keep earning commodity prices.
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. ElevenThe Mechanisms
What a brand and an owned variety are worth, from the kiwifruit growers - Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
The island's spices: pepper, cardamom, cloves and nutmeg
Idea 121 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.