Idea 185 of 500. Cluster 8: The coconut, which deserves its own list
Drinking straws and plates from fallen coconut leaves, for the cafés and caterers that have given up plastic
The mechanism, from the book
The whole-nut principle. Sri Lanka's coconut exports grew by more than 40% in 2025, faster than any other major export, which makes this the chain already moving fastest. Almost every part of the nut has a market, and much of the value still leaves the island in bulk, under somebody else's name.
Every idea in cluster 8 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Collect fallen coconut leaves from one estate, with the owner's permission, and make 100 straws and 50 plates by hand or with a small press. Test them in hot and cold drinks and with a curry, and note which hold up. Give a box to 3 cafés and a caterer for a week, then ask what they would order each month. A repeat order is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A café or caterer that has given up plastic and wants a straw or plate that is natural, sturdy and cheap enough to use every day.
- What leaves today
- Fallen leaves are burned or left to rot, while the cafés that gave up plastic buy replacements made elsewhere.
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.
What the book adds
One nut, 15 businesses, and the reason so much of it still leaves in bulk drums and bales is that too few built the packaging and the brand.
In the book
- Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
Rubber and coconut on the island's lower slopes and coast - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
Nestlé Lanka's coconut milk powder, made at Kurunegala for the world
More from cluster 8
- 176Coconut yoghurt and dairy-free spreads for the vegan shelves of Europe, made from fresh milk pressed here
- 177Coconut water jelly and other set desserts, a product nobody yet associates with Sri Lanka
- 178King coconut as a named origin product, the way Alphonso is a named mango
- 179Virgin coconut oil, cold-pressed, certified, in consumer packs
- 180Coconut milk and cream in retail formats rather than industrial drums
- 181Coconut flour and desiccated coconut for the gluten-free and baking markets
Idea 185 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.