Ice plants at every fishing harbour run as a service, so the catch does not spoil before the sale

A first step

Ask 10 boat owners at one fishing harbour how much catch they lose in a bad week and what they pay for ice now, if they can get it. Write down the answers and add up the lost value. Then quote a price per block and a delivery time, and ask each owner whether they would sign up for a season. Signed names and the lost-catch figure are the case for the plant.

Who pays first

A fishing-boat owner who loses part of every hot-day catch before the sale, and will pay for reliable ice at the quay.

What leaves today

Fish spoils between the boat and the buyer and sells at the lowest price, so the value is lost before anyone can capture it.

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. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, which Japan and Korea buy
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster