Starter Kit. Idea 254 of 500. Cluster 13
Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, which Japan and Korea buy
The mechanism, from the book
An ocean eight times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a tourism industry on water Sri Lanka has more of.
The first step
Visit a lagoon village in the north and ask the people already collecting sea cucumber what they are paid per kilo and who buys it. Then write to three seafood importers in Japan and Korea with a photograph, the species and one question: at what grade and volume would you buy dried product from a farm. A reply stating a price and a minimum order shows you the gap between the beach and the buyer.
- Who pays first
- A seafood importer in Japan or Korea who needs a steady, traceable supply of dried sea cucumber or seaweed and pays more for graded, farmed product.
- What leaves today
- Sea cucumber leaves the lagoons unprocessed through traders, so the farming, drying and grading margin is captured by whoever handles it next.
Ask first
- National Aquaculture Development Authority. Ask what licence sea-cucumber or seaweed farming in a lagoon needs.
- Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Ask which buyers and exporters are registered for sea cucumber.
Check before you spend
Whether farming plots in the lagoon need a licence and the village's agreement, and what the buyer abroad requires for processing and drying.
Find out these three numbers
- What do collectors get per kilo of dried sea cucumber now?
- What would an importer in Japan or Korea pay?
- How long before a farmed crop is ready to sell?
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.