Idea 290 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
Cold stores at the district level, rented by the pallet
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
Count what farmers and traders at one district's weekly market throw away after a glut, and ask what they would pay to store a pallet for a week. Write down names and the pallets each would send. Then get a price for renting a refrigerated container. If the promised pallets at the stated price cover the rent, you have the proof to start.
- Who pays first
- A vegetable trader or farmer group who must sell on the day of harvest and would pay by the pallet to wait for a better price.
- What leaves today
- Produce is dumped or sold at the glut price because there is nowhere cold to wait, so the season's value is lost.
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 290 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.