Starter Kit. Idea 190 of 500. Cluster 8
Coconut-timber furniture and flooring from the palms that have stopped bearing
The mechanism, from the book
The whole-nut principle. Sri Lanka's coconut exports are growing, which makes this the one chain already moving. Almost every part of the nut has a market and most of them leave the island unprocessed.
The first step
Go to the estate owners near you and ask how many palms have stopped bearing and what they do with the trunks now. Take one trunk to a sawmill and a carpenter and have a small table or a set of floor planks made. Photograph the result with the grain showing, and show it to a boutique hotel owner and a furniture shop. Ask each for an order and a price.
- Who pays first
- A boutique hotel owner who wants local furniture and flooring with a story guests can see and touch.
- What leaves today
- Old palms are felled for firewood when they stop bearing, although the timber can become furniture and flooring that sells for far more.
Ask first
- Coconut Development Authority. Ask whether felling palms that have stopped bearing needs their permission.
- Forest Department. Ask whether moving or selling coconut timber needs a transport permit.
Check before you spend
Whether felling old palms and moving the timber needs a permit, and how the timber must be dried and treated before furniture is sold.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a sawmill charge to cut and dry one trunk?
- What does a coconut-timber table sell for compared with a hardwood one?
- How many palms near you have stopped bearing this year?
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.