Idea 295 of 500. Cluster 14: Farm to shelf
Home gardens turned into a supply chain for one hotel, with a contract and a 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
Get the weekly buying list from one hotel's head chef: vegetables, herbs and fruit, with quantities and prices. Then walk the home gardens of the nearest village and find which households could supply which items on that list. Bring the chef a first delivery and propose a contract at a fixed price. A signed contract, even for three items, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A hotel head chef who wants local produce on the menu and will pay a fixed price for reliable weekly supply from named gardens.
- What leaves today
- Home gardens grow more than families eat and the surplus goes to waste, while the nearest hotel buys the same produce through middlemen.
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 295 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.