Starter Kit. Idea 134 of 500. Cluster 6
Hoppers and string-hopper mixes that work in a foreign kitchen
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.
The first step
Develop a dry mix for hoppers and one for string hoppers, then post packs with simple English instructions to 10 Sri Lankan friends abroad who have never managed to make them. Ask each to cook them in their own kitchen and send a photo and honest comments. When 7 in 10 succeed, you have a product a grocer can stock.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan family abroad that loves hoppers but cannot make them work with foreign flour and a foreign stove.
- What leaves today
- Rice and coconut leave as raw commodities; a mix that works abroad sells the island's breakfast, not just its ingredients.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what standard and labelling a packaged flour mix should meet.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which markets abroad they see for Sri Lankan food mixes.
Check before you spend
That the mix works in foreign kitchens with ordinary pans, that labels meet the buyer country's rules, and how long it keeps.
Find out these three numbers
- What will shops abroad pay for a pack of mix?
- How many test cooks abroad can try it first?
- What does one pack cost to make?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.