Starter Kit. Idea 168 of 500. Cluster 7
A single online catalogue of Sri Lankan export-ready products, curated, in English
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
The first step
Choose 20 products from small producers that are ready to export: packed, labelled and available in quantity. Photograph them, write each up in English with the minimum order, and put them on one simple catalogue page. Send the link to 30 importers of Asian food and crafts abroad and count the enquiries. The enquiries, and which products draw them, prove the catalogue.
- Who pays first
- A foreign importer who wants Sri Lankan products but cannot find reliable, export-ready suppliers in one place.
- What leaves today
- Foreign buyers who cannot find island suppliers buy from other countries instead, so export-ready products wait for customers who never arrive.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask whether they keep a list of export-ready firms who might join.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what rules apply to publishing producers' details online.
Check before you spend
That every listed product is genuinely export-ready, that producers agree to the listing, and that the curation rules are published.
Find out these three numbers
- How many products are export-ready today?
- What will producers pay to be listed?
- Which buyers abroad would use the catalogue?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House. Chapter Seventeen
"the story, the products, the certifications, the minimum order quantity, the production"
Each listing carries the certifications, minimum order and capacity a buyer needs.
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.