Starter Kit. Idea 278 of 500. Cluster 14
Cut flowers and foliage for the Gulf and Europe, from the cool hills, the way Kenya does it
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
Cut a box of foliage and a few stems from a hill-country grower, pack them as an exporter would, and keep them in a cool room for a week to see how they last. Then send photographs, the vase-life result and a price per stem to three flower wholesalers in the Gulf. A request for a trial shipment is the proof, and their questions tell you what the cold chain must deliver.
- Who pays first
- A flower wholesaler in the Gulf who needs a steady supply of foliage and stems from a source a short flight away.
- What leaves today
- The cool hills grow flowers for the local market, and the export trade that Kenya built goes to other growers.
Ask first
- Department of Agriculture. Ask what plant-health certificates cut flowers need for export.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers in the Gulf and Europe want cut foliage from here.
Check before you spend
Whether your flowers meet the plant-health rules of the buying country, and how the cold chain to the airport is kept.
Find out these three numbers
- What do Gulf buyers pay per box of foliage?
- How long do your stems last in a cool room?
- What does air freight cost per box?
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.