Starter Kit. Idea 290 of 500. Cluster 14
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask where in the district a cold store could be sited.
- Ceylon Electricity Board. Ask what power supply a cold store at that site could get.
Check before you spend
Whether the site and building suit food storage, what power connection is possible, and who is liable if stored produce spoils.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a trader pay to store a pallet for a week?
- How much produce is thrown away after a glut?
- What does running the store cost each month?
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.