Idea 133 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Freeze-dried tropical fruit, mangosteen, rambutan, mango and pineapple, as snacks for European and Gulf supermarkets
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
Buy a small quantity of ripe mangosteen, rambutan, mango and pineapple in season and have it freeze-dried by a food technology unit that offers the service, then pack it in plain pouches. Take the samples to 3 importers of dried fruit in Europe or the Gulf and ask what they would pay, in what volume and to what standard. Their answer tells you whether to buy a machine.
- Who pays first
- An importer supplying health-food shops and supermarkets in Europe or the Gulf who wants a tropical fruit snack with a clear origin.
- What leaves today
- Fruit that is not eaten in season rots or sells cheaply at the roadside, while the snack made from the same fruit is sold abroad under other countries' names.
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 133 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.