Starter Kit. Idea 258 of 500. Cluster 13
Boats for export: the boatyards already on the coast building fishing boats and launches for the countries around the Indian Ocean, not only for the home fleet
The mechanism, from the book
An ocean 8 times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a tourism industry on the same ocean, with a fraction of the land.
The first step
Visit two boatyards on the coast and ask what fishing boats and launches they build, at what price, and whether they have ever sold one abroad. Ask the country's export board which countries around the Indian Ocean buy boats of that kind. Take photographs and a price list of one model to two buyers or agents there. The proof is one firm enquiry at a price the yard can meet.
- Who pays first
- A fishing company or harbour in a nearby Indian Ocean country that needs boats and pays for one built to its order.
- What leaves today
- The yards build only for the home fleet; boats sold abroad bring foreign money in for the same skill and the same slipways.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers around the Indian Ocean look for fishing boats and launches.
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what papers are needed to ship a finished boat abroad.
Check before you spend
Confirm the build and safety standards the buying country sets for boats, who certifies a boat before it leaves, and how it will be shipped.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a buyer abroad pay for a boat of this size?
- How many boats can the yard build in a year?
- What does it cost to ship one boat to the buyer?
A comparison from the book
Costa Rica. Chapter Eleven
"trained technicians, local suppliers, and the skill of meeting the world's safety rules"
Meeting the buyer's standards is what turns a local yard into an exporter.
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.