Starter Kit. Idea 273 of 500. Cluster 14
Fruit and vegetable drying: mango, pineapple, papaya, jackfruit and okra as premium snacks and soup mixes for Europe and the Gulf
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.
The first step
Dry a small batch of mango, pineapple and jackfruit in a simple solar or electric dryer, pack them in sealed pouches, and send samples with a price per kilo to three health-food shops or importers in Europe and the Gulf. Ask for a written reaction on taste, texture and packaging, and what volume they would take. One sample order, or specific feedback on what to fix, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A health-food importer in Europe or the Gulf looking for tropical dried fruit without added sugar, with a clear origin on the pack.
- What leaves today
- Fresh fruit rots in the glut season or sells raw at the gate, when dried and packed it travels and keeps its value.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standard applies to dried fruit sold in sealed pouches.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers in Europe and the Gulf want dried tropical fruit.
Check before you spend
Whether your drying room has food approval, and what moisture, residue and labelling rules the buyer's country sets for dried fruit.
Find out these three numbers
- What do health shops abroad pay per kilo of dried mango?
- How much fresh fruit makes a kilo of dried?
- What does the dryer cost to run per batch?
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.