Idea 271 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
A farmers' co-operative dairy in the hill country selling cheese and yoghurt under its own brand
The mechanism, from the book
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it. Denmark's farmers got rich the day they owned the creamery.
Every idea in cluster 14 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Make a small batch of set yoghurt from co-operative members' milk, pot it with a simple label naming the farms, and take it to two hill-country hotels and a supermarket manager in the nearest town. Ask each to stock it for a week on sale or return. What sells through in that week, and the price the manager will pay, tell the farmers what their milk is worth once they own the product.
- Who pays first
- A hill-country hotel that wants local yoghurt and cheese on the breakfast table and can charge guests for the farm's name.
- What leaves today
- Farmers sell raw milk to a collector, and the brand, the processing and the margin belong to whoever puts the name on the pot.
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. ElevenThe Mechanisms
Denmark's co-operative dairies and the binding contract that held them
More from cluster 14
- 272Buffalo-milk mozzarella and ghee for the hotels and for export
- 273Fruit and vegetable drying: mango, pineapple, papaya, jackfruit and okra as premium snacks and soup mixes for Europe and the Gulf
- 274Frozen tropical fruit pulp for the smoothie chains of the world
- 275Heritage rice varieties grown under contract and sold at ten times the commodity price
- 276Organic certification services for smallholder groups, shared so the cost is bearable
- 277Mushroom farms supplying the hotels, since most are still imported
Idea 271 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.