Starter Kit. Idea 490 of 500. Cluster 27
Avocado orchards in the hills for the breakfast tables of the Gulf, which now fly the fruit in from much further away
The mechanism, from the book
Fruit the world wants, sold in a heap by the road. Grading, a name and a cold box make the heap an export and the season a reason to visit.
The first step
Ask an agriculture officer which avocado varieties grow well in the hills and how long a tree takes to fruit. Find a landowner willing to plant a trial plot under a shared agreement. Meanwhile, buy avocados from trees already growing, grade and pack them, and send a sample box to a fruit importer in the Gulf to learn the grade and price they need. The proof is that answer and a signed land agreement.
- Who pays first
- A fruit importer in the Gulf who now flies avocados in from much further away and would buy nearer, graded fruit.
- What leaves today
- The Gulf pays to fly avocados from far away; orchards in the hills could take that order and keep the money here.
Ask first
- Department of Agriculture. Ask which avocado varieties suit which altitudes, and where to buy grafted plants.
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which importers in the Gulf buy avocados, and what papers they need.
Check before you spend
Confirm the right to use the land in writing, the variety suited to the altitude, and the plant health papers an importer in the Gulf requires.
Find out these three numbers
- How many years before a planted tree bears fruit?
- What does a Gulf importer pay per box of avocados?
- What does it cost to fly a box to the Gulf?
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.