A packaging-materials supply chain at the district level: boxes, tape, labels, ice

A first step

Call on the small producers in one district town and ask where they buy their cartons, tape, labels and ice, how far they travel and how often they run out. Get prices from a wholesaler for the same items in bulk, then offer local delivery against a weekly order. The proof is a first round of weekly orders from producers who say they would switch.

Who pays first

A small food or spice producer who travels to the city for cartons and labels, and would pay a little more to have them delivered weekly.

What leaves today

Goods leave unpacked and unbranded when packaging is hard to get; a district supply chain is the step that lets products leave finished.

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. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  The harbour on the main sea lane
• Ch. FourteenThe List
  Defend the port before expanding it

More from cluster 22

• 426Motorbike courier networks in the districts for the small exporters' parcels
• 427Shared depots where twenty producers fill one container
• 428Refrigerated three-wheelers for the fish and dairy trades
• 429Tourist shuttle services on fixed routes and published timetables between the sites
• 430Airport transfer companies with drivers trained, insured and rated
• 431Luggage-forwarding for tourists, so they can walk the hills and meet their bags at the coast

All 10 ideas in this cluster