Starter Kit. Idea 60 of 500. Cluster 3
Luxury spice boxes: cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, vanilla
The mechanism, from the book
The Zermatt water bottle. Sigiriya has not got a stone with its own name on it.
The first step
Gather small quantities of the best cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and vanilla you can find, and pack five sample boxes with a card naming each farm. Give one each to a hotel shop, a gift shop and three people abroad who buy luxury food gifts. Ask each for a price and an order. One order is the proof.
- Who pays first
- Hotel shops, and gift buyers abroad who want a premium food gift with a traceable origin, especially at festivals.
- What leaves today
- Spices leave in bulk sacks; a gift box sells the same spice with its farm and its story at a luxury price.
Ask first
- Department of Export Agriculture. Ask which growers sell graded cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and vanilla in small lots.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask what labelling standard boxed spices should meet.
Check before you spend
That the spices are clean and graded, that the box and labels are honest about origin and weight, and what rules apply where buyers take it.
Find out these three numbers
- What will a visitor pay for a luxury spice box?
- What do spices, box and printing cost per unit?
- Which hotels and airport shops would stock it?
A comparison from the book
Cinnamon. Chapter Four
"The buyer grinds it, blends it, brands it, and sells it on"
The buyer abroad brands the spice; a fine box keeps that step at home.
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.