Idea 148 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Sea salt from the Puttalam and Hambantota pans, flaked and branded
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
Approach a salt-pan owner in Puttalam or Hambantota about buying crystals from the top of the pan at harvest, then flake, dry and pack 50 small jars with the pan's name on the label. Put them in a guesthouse shop and on a hotel restaurant's tables. Then send two jars to a fine-food shop abroad and ask for a trial order at a named price.
- Who pays first
- A fine-food shop or restaurant that already sells named sea salts and would stock one from a tropical pan with a story.
- What leaves today
- Salt from the pans is sold as a cheap bulk commodity, while flaked, named sea salt sells by the jar at a far higher price.
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 148 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.