Starter Kit. Idea 145 of 500. Cluster 6
Pepper as a single-estate product with the estate's name on the jar
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
Agree with one pepper grower to buy this season's crop from a single named plot, and pack it in glass jars with the estate's name, altitude and harvest month on the label. Put jars on the tables and in the shop of a guesthouse nearby for a month. Then send two jars to a fine-food shop abroad and ask for a trial order. A reorder proves the name adds value.
- Who pays first
- A fine-food shop abroad whose customers already buy single-origin coffee and chocolate, and will pay for pepper with an estate name.
- What leaves today
- Pepper leaves the island as an anonymous bulk commodity, so the estate that grew it earns the lowest price in the chain.
Ask first
- Department of Export Agriculture. Ask what testing pepper for export usually needs.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what labelling standard a jar of pepper should meet.
Check before you spend
That the pepper is tested clean, that the estate's name on the jar is accurate, and what labels and residue tests buyers need.
Find out these three numbers
- What do shops abroad pay for single-estate pepper?
- How much pepper does the estate produce each year?
- What does a jar cost to fill and label?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt. Chapter Five
"here will carry the name of here."
The estate's name on the jar is the brand, as Zermatt's name is.
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.