Idea 137 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Craft beer and cider from local fruit for the tourist towns
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
Walk round the bars and restaurants of one tourist town and ask three questions: what beer visitors order, whether they ask for anything local, and what the owner would pay per bottle for a fruit cider or beer made nearby. Then find out from the excise office what licence a small brewery needs. A list of bars ready to stock it, beside the licence cost, is your answer.
- Who pays first
- A bar owner in a tourist town whose visitors ask for a local drink and are offered only the usual brands.
- What leaves today
- Local fruit sells cheaply or spoils in season, while visitors' drink spending goes to brands and ingredients made elsewhere.
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 137 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.