Starter Kit. Idea 372 of 500. Cluster 18
Sri Lankan restaurants abroad supplied direct from a Sri Lankan wholesaler
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
The first step
Visit four Sri Lankan restaurants in one city abroad and ask the chef where the spices, the rice and the dried fish come from and what they pay. Get a quote from a wholesaler at home for the same items, shipped. If one restaurant agrees to a trial order at your price, you have the first account.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan restaurant abroad that buys through intermediaries and wants the real product, traceable to the island, at a steady price.
- What leaves today
- Ingredients for Sri Lankan food abroad pass through other countries' wholesalers; direct supply keeps the margin and the origin with the island.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what export documents dried food and spices need.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which wholesalers already ship spices and rice abroad.
Check before you spend
The destination country's food import and labelling rules, the food safety certificates a restaurant needs from you, and who pays freight and duty.
Find out these three numbers
- What do restaurants pay now for spices, rice and dried fish?
- What does the wholesaler quote, shipped?
- How often does a restaurant reorder?
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.