Idea 149 of 500. Cluster 6: Food and drink as export, not just hospitality
Buffalo curd and treacle sold as a chilled dessert in the Gulf supermarkets
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
Talk to a curd maker you trust about setting their curd in sealed cups with the treacle in a separate lid, then test how long it keeps chilled. Ask Sri Lankans working in the Gulf, through a community group, which supermarkets they shop in and whether they would buy it. Take those names and approach the chilled-dessert buyer at one of them with a photo and a price.
- Who pays first
- A Gulf supermarket serving South Asian shoppers, whose Sri Lankan customers ask for curd and treacle by name.
- What leaves today
- Curd and treacle are sold at the roadside at home, so a dessert travellers already love earns nothing beyond the island.
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 149 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.