Idea 275 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
Heritage rice varieties grown under contract and sold at ten times the commodity price
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
Buy a few sacks of one heritage rice variety from the farmer who grew it, pack it in kilo bags with the variety and the farm on the label, and offer it to a Sri Lankan grocery in London and an organic shop in the city. Ask for an opening order at a price per kilo that pays the farmer well above the commodity rate. The shop's reorder is the proof that the name sells.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocery or organic shop whose customers want the rice their grandparents ate and will pay many times the ordinary price.
- What leaves today
- Heritage rice is grown in small plots and sold as ordinary paddy, so the price its name could command is never collected.
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
- 271A farmers' co-operative dairy in the hill country selling cheese and yoghurt under its own brand
- 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
- 276Organic certification services for smallholder groups, shared so the cost is bearable
- 277Mushroom farms supplying the hotels, since most are still imported
Idea 275 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.