Hi all,
This is such a great thread as I can ask for help on my worthless idea and not feel too guilty.
I have not found gold. But I have found an incredibly cheap fruit/vegetable that could serve as the base of sauces/lotions in a very remote part of the world (my girlfriend's home village). No one is doing it here or in the country to my knowledge.
I have no intention of being a grocery mogul. But I think I can pay someone to make a number of products at extremely low prices in this part of the world. And there MAY be a small gap in the market.
My only question is regarding shipping and other costs (the idea is irrelevant anyway if the products don't taste/feel good).
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mae-Ploy-S...-of-6/31197425
Here is Mae Ploy sauce, one of the most popular sauces shipped in from Thailand. It costs $5 per bottle if buying six. But we know it costs a fraction of the cost in Thailand (say $0.40). Is the bottle on the shelf at Walmart (after the supplier's mark up) at $1? $2? $3?
Essentially, I want to make a line of products from somewhere in remote SE Asia. Say 3000 bottles a day:
http://worldfreightrates.com/freight
I checked this website out and it seems 250kg of 'produce' is approximately $3000 USD. So shipping in 1000 bottles is useless. If 10000, now it makes sense!
A few things for naysayers:
This is probably the cheapest place in the world to find such products. Cheapest and tastiest I've ever had. And they are durable.
I know the terrain well and speak the language a little.
I am aware fruits and vegetables are incredibly cheap around the world and the cost is all in the shipping (a market I could never hope to break due to my puny volumes).
The unit cost of one of the fruits/vegetables (which I intend to make products out of) is approximately 8% of the price in a supermarket in UK/US.
I have no experience of factories but if it is viable I intend to learn.
I have to start the idea somewhere...
Any words of encouragement or am I living in dreamworld?
I don't think I need to say the actual product. Tens of fruits/vegetables in SE Asia are incredibly cheap but expensive in Europe/US due to shipping costs/markup & demand etc.
I would really appreciate any useful answers. I was going to post on ELI5 on reddit but I thought better answers would come here.