Idea 226 of 500. Cluster 11: Cinnamon and the spice garden
Cinnamon farm stays in the south-west, where the peeling is the show
The mechanism, from the book
The imitation out-earns the original. Vietnam earns more from cassia than Sri Lanka does from true cinnamon, because the cassia arrives on the shelf as a product and the cinnamon arrives at the port as a bale.
Every idea in cluster 11 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Sit down with a cinnamon smallholder in the south-west and ask whether 4 guests could stay 2 nights, watch the peeling, try it with a peeler, and eat with the family. Agree a nightly price the family keeps most of. Offer the stay to guesthouses and tour operators along the coast and record the first booking. The proof is a family's yes and one booking.
- Who pays first
- A coastal visitor who has had a week of beaches and wants a day or two of real rural life with something to take home.
- What leaves today
- Visitors to the south-west coast rarely see the cinnamon gardens a short drive inland, so the craft earns almost nothing from tourism.
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. FourThe Same Failure, Four Times
Why cassia out-earns true cinnamon - Ch. ElevenThe Mechanisms
The single desk that ends undercutting and funds brand and quality
More from cluster 11
- 221Cinnamon quills in retail packs with the grade printed, since almost no consumer knows the grades exist
- 222Cinnamon sticks as a branded gift, tied and boxed, sold at every airport in the world where we have a shop
- 223Cinnamon-leaf and bark oils bottled for the aromatherapy trade under a Sri Lankan name
- 224Cinnamon-infused honey, sugar and salt as a range
- 225A "true cinnamon" education campaign run by producers, aimed at bakers and chefs abroad
- 227Peeler training schools, since the skill is disappearing and it is the whole value
Idea 226 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.