Starter Kit. Idea 233 of 500. Cluster 11
Pepper vines on every coconut estate as a second crop, with a buyer contracted in advance
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.
The first step
Ask 3 spice buyers or exporters whether they would contract in advance for pepper grown on coconut estates, and at what price and volume. Take the best offer to 3 coconut estate owners and ask whether they would plant vines on a trial block with the buyer's contract in hand. The proof is a buyer's signed intent and an estate's yes.
- Who pays first
- A spice exporter who needs a reliable pepper supply and will commit to a price in advance to secure it.
- What leaves today
- Coconut estates grow one crop on land that could carry two, so income from the same trees and the same ground is never earned.
Ask first
- Department of Export Agriculture. Ask which pepper buyers contract in advance with growers.
- Coconut Development Authority. Ask whether pepper vines on coconut estates are encouraged, and how they are planted.
Check before you spend
Whether the estate owner agrees in writing to the vines, and what the buyer's contract says about quality, volume and price.
Find out these three numbers
- What price per kilo will a buyer fix in advance?
- How many vines can a coconut estate carry without hurting the nuts?
- How long before a vine gives its first full crop?
A comparison from the book
Denmark. Chapter Eleven
"Members signed binding contracts, usually for about 10 years"
A contract signed before planting is what lets both grower and buyer plan.
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.