Idea 186 of 500. Cluster 8: The coconut, which deserves its own list
Coir from the husk: matting, rope, mats that hold soil on slopes, and potting material for plant nurseries
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
Visit a coir mill near you and ask what they sell fibre for and to whom. Then choose one finished product, rope, matting or a growing block, and ask the mill for a small run. Send samples and a price to two landscaping or erosion-control contractors and one horticulture supplier, and ask what they would order. Their order tells you which product to make.
- Who pays first
- A landscaping contractor or horticulture supplier who wants a natural fibre product bought from its origin, not a middleman.
- What leaves today
- Husk fibre leaves as bales of raw coir, while the matting, geotextiles and growing media made from it sell at far higher prices abroad.
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.
There's a song about this idea
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 186 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.