Idea 287 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
Kithul tapping co-operatives with a shared processing plant and a 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
Gather the treacle of five kithul tappers in one village, have it tested for purity, and bottle it under one shared label. Offer the bottles to a delicatessen, a hotel and a Sri Lankan grocery in London with the test result on the label. The price they will pay for tested treacle, compared with what the tappers get at the gate, is the case for a shared plant.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan grocery whose customers want genuine kithul treacle and will pay more for a tested, branded bottle.
- What leaves today
- Tappers sell treacle to traders unbranded, so the premium for genuine kithul goes to whoever can prove it is real.
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
- 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
Idea 287 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.