Idea 209 of 500. Cluster 10: Tea, beyond the auction
The estate-workers' co-operative brand, where the pickers own the pack, sold to buyers who care who picked it
The mechanism, from the book
The Colombo auction sells tea by the lot to a buyer who blends it under his own name. Every step after the auction is where the money is, and every step can be done here by somebody who is not a plantation company.
Every idea in cluster 10 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Talk with a group of estate workers you already know, on their own time, about whether they would put their names and faces on a pack they own together. If they agree, buy a few kilos from their estate at the normal price, pack it with their photographs and a line each, and offer it to 3 fair-trade or ethical shops abroad. The proof is a shop's reorder.
- Who pays first
- An ethical grocery shop abroad whose customers pay more to know who picked their food, and can find almost no tea that tells them.
- What leaves today
- The people who pick the tea own none of its value, and no buyer abroad can see who they are or pay them directly for the leaf.
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
The auction and every step after it - Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
Tea whose name the world has known for 200 years
More from cluster 10
- 201Single-estate teas sold direct to consumers abroad by subscription, with the estate's story
- 202A tea sommelier course in Nuwara Eliya, certified, for the hotel trade of the world
- 203Tea tasting rooms in Kandy, Ella and Colombo run like wine bars
- 204Cold-brew and sparkling Ceylon tea in cans for the Gulf and Asia
- 205Matcha-style ground green tea from the upcountry, for cafés
- 206Tea cosmetics: creams and serums with a named estate's extract
Idea 209 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.