WHY NOT SRI LANKA? සිංහල

Starter Kit. Idea 486 of 500. Cluster 27

Jaffna's Karuthakolomban mango graded, packed and sold under its own name, in Colombo and abroad

Back to the idea

Written for this site as a starting point, not from the book. Rules and fees change: ask the bodies named below before you spend money.

The mechanism, from the book

The land, the lagoons and the savings of families abroad are waiting. What comes first is the small business.

The first step

Buy 100 Karuthakolomban mangoes in season from 3 growers in Jaffna, sort them by size and ripeness, and pack them in boxes with the variety and the district on the label. Sell them in Colombo through 2 fruit shops or a market stall and compare the price with loose mangoes. Then ask a Sri Lankan grocer abroad what they would need to import the same box. A higher price for the named box is the proof.

Who pays first
A shopper in Colombo, or a Sri Lankan grocer abroad, who knows the Jaffna mango by name and will pay more for a box that is graded and true to it.
What leaves today
The mango leaves Jaffna loose and unnamed, and is sold beside ordinary mangoes at an ordinary price.

Ask first

  • Department of Agriculture. Ask how growers can grade mangoes and what keeps them fresh on the way to market.
  • Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers abroad have asked for named mango varieties from Sri Lanka.

Check before you spend

That the fruit meets the plant-health rules of each buyer's country, a written supply agreement with growers, and how the name is protected on the box.

Find out these three numbers

  1. What does a graded box of named mangoes sell for in Colombo?
  2. How many growers would sell to one grading shed?
  3. What share of fruit is lost between tree and shop now?

A comparison from the book

Ethiopia's coffee names. Chapter Eleven

"The name is needed. It is nowhere near enough."

A mango's name helps only when the grading, the packing and the shelf behind it are owned here too.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

WITH500BUSINESS IDEASTO STARTTOMORROW

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.