Wednesday, July 1, 2009

EXPORTING TEA BAGS FROM BELIZE

Tea Bags a unique BRAND NAME niche market for a Belize entrepreneur.


ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS IDEAS FOR OUR 5000 GRADUATES OF HIGHER EDUCATION THIS YEAR 2009

This box of tea bags comes from Sri Lanka all the way to be sold in Belize grocery shelves. This particular brand for which we paid $7.90 for was unique. The tea bag contained CARDAMOMO spice and GINGER.
We do not grow Cardamomo in Belize, but they do next door in Guatemala about five hours drive away. We do grow Ginger in Belize.
There is a whole world market of gourmet people who want to buy jungle and mountain tropical medicinal herbal teas. I can think of fever grass, which grows wild along my fence in Hillview. We make tea with it, when we have a fever. There are a bunch of local plants we make teas of for different things.
Cardamomo has a huge market in India and the Persian Gulf Arabian states. Now as an entrepeneur you can buy the Cardamomo spice up in Coban from the wholesalers, or just go to Lanquin, 2 hours away and get it direct from the farmers. The roads are paved and better than any in Belize, all the way. The bus trip takes about 5 hours. COBAN, Guatemala has around 7 wholesalers of CARDAMOMO spice. Ginger you can grow yourself in Belize. It will grow like a weed and does not need much care.
There are a whole lot of grasses, vines and so-called weeds in Belize that make medicinal therepeutic teas. The market is huge.
There shouldn't be any problem in making tea bags. You could do a pilot experimental project on your kitchen table, or in the back yard. For marketing, take a trip to the Holy Grail of exporting entrepreneurs in Belize at Melinda in the Stann Creek, Pomona Valley and talk to Maria Sharpe who does this all the time after years of learning all the tricks for selling to foreign markets. She sells jams and hot pepper sauces and exports them. She has spent years learning the ropes. A college course in export marketing all by itself, done in one or two days from a Belizean expert.
I would if young, decide to brand name about 40 or so herbal gourmet teas and then go into business. Why don't you try it?

No comments: