Starter Kit. Idea 267 of 500. Cluster 13
Ice plants at every fishing harbour run as a service, so the catch does not spoil before the sale
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
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.
Ask first
- Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Ask which harbours lack ice now, and whether an ice plant needs approval.
- Ceylon Electricity Board. Ask what power supply an ice plant at the harbour can get.
Check before you spend
Whether the harbour allows a private ice plant, what power connection is possible, and what water quality food-grade ice requires.
Find out these three numbers
- How much catch spoils at this harbour in a bad week?
- What do boat owners pay for ice now, if they can get it?
- What does making a tonne of ice cost?
A comparison from the book
Denmark. Chapter Eleven
"And because the supply was guaranteed, the creameries could borrow to build."
Signed regular buyers make the ice plant bankable before it is built.
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.