Idea 141 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
A Sri Lankan rice brand: red rice, suwandel and the heritage varieties, in retail packs abroad
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
Pack small quantities of red rice, suwandel and two other heritage varieties, bought from farmers who grow them, in 1 kg bags naming the variety and district. Send a sample set to a Sri Lankan grocer abroad with cooking notes and a price list. Ask which two they would stock and how many bags a month. That order is the brand's first shelf.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocer abroad whose customers want the heritage rice their parents ate, and cannot find it with its name on the bag.
- What leaves today
- Heritage rice is sold anonymously in local markets, so its names, which could command a speciality-grain price abroad, earn nothing.
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 141 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.