Idea 126 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
King coconut water, bottled and branded for export
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
Ask a nearby bottler or a food technology lab what it would take to give king coconut water a shelf life of several months, and get the method and cost in writing. Then contact two Sri Lankan supermarkets abroad, send a photo of a mock label and ask what they would pay per bottle and how many they would order. A price and a quantity make the case.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan supermarket abroad whose customers know king coconut from home and cannot buy it where they live.
- What leaves today
- King coconut is sold fresh at the roadside, so the island's most recognisable drink earns nothing once a visitor has flown home.
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 126 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.