Idea 124 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Herbal tea ranges: cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger
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
Blend three teas from what grows near you, cinnamon, lemongrass and ginger, and pack 20 of each in plain pouches with the source written on the label. Send a sample box to three Sri Lankan grocers abroad and put the rest in a guesthouse shop. Ask each grocer for a trial order. Whichever blend they reorder becomes the anchor of the range.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocer abroad whose customers want a herbal blend that tastes of home and says where it was grown.
- What leaves today
- Cinnamon, lemongrass and ginger leave as raw bark, leaf and root; the blend, the pouch and the brand are added abroad.
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
More from cluster 6
Idea 124 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.