SFD-Newsletter, December 2014 (Fred van Hessen) I am writing this newsletter in total darkness, all that I can see is the screen of my iPad and the stars over my head. No other sound can be heard than the powerful hiss and roar of the breakers on the shore, some thirty meters in front of me, sprinkled only with cicada sounds. Im sitting at the veranda in front of our little clean cabin, bare feet in flip-flops, on a plastic chair at a roughly crafted table cut from low- quality plywood, adorned with childish paintings of fish and crabs that I cannot see right now. Now and then a whiff of African night perfume comes drifting by. Behind me lies Ellen, already sound asleep, under a thin blanket and the mosquito net. Still some 22°C, I guess. Back in The Gambia that is. No, certainly not a severe punishment indeed. Earlier, in The Netherlands... ...the ten kilograms of dried mango that I had brought in the plane has been so successfull that we can now sell more than presently can be produced, and at a considerably higher price as well. Can you imagine my sense of achievement in seeing the expression on a traders face when first tasting it...? Possible collaboration When I left The Gambia in early August, the promising three-way-win prospect already existed, consisting of a collaboration between 1.) a medium-large size Gambian farm, 2.) Mama Diop to build, manage and operate a Solar Fruit Dryer on the premises of the farm, and 3.) a Czech company producing raw food products, willing to invest about € 100.000 in this specific SFD, provided that it would turn out certified organic products that would be dried at a low temperature, so that the company could use them in their own line of products. The farm has not yet been certified, but since they have actually practiced organic farming for quite a while, this could possibly be achieved rather quickly. Facing these prospects the owner decided that the farm should also be provided with proper expert management, so could I perhaps be helpful in finding a suitable European couple...? To cut this very long story short: I actually did find the ideal couple indeed, and in February they will visit The Gambia to survey their possibilities. Thats what I call a promising prospect... Webshop The actual production cost of drying mango in June and July had turned out to be considerably higher than anticipated, caused among other causes by the long transport distance during the first two weeks of supply of fresh mangoes, and by a couple of unexpected rainy days in July. Gerard Klijn of TDH ~the company that had pledged to buy our produce in the first place~ provided me with his blessing to try and find other channels to sell the produce and thus compensate for the higher production cost. Opening a webshop under the wing of FairFriends seems like a really good opportunity. In fact this was very nearly a done deal, until... Export problems ...emerged. You may remember the jubilant opening of my previous newsletter, June/July 14, mentioning that all we could produce had in fact already been sold beforehand? This time I give you part two, the continuation, somewhat less jubilant though: our delicious dried mango, the best youre ever likely to taste, has been sitting in a shed in the port of Banjul for over four months. Luckily we had packed it perfectly, and at this very moment it is actually inside a container that will set sail to Holland even before the end of this year. But for quite a while it rather was the best youre never likely to taste ... The story of this failed transport illuminates in a painful way how little is actually being exported from The Gambia and the limited facilities to do so. Two days of roaming the port of Banjul, paying visits to virtually every shipping agent in search of a shared container to a continental European destination taught us that for a good number of months nothing at all had gone that way and that it wasnt bound to happen either. The best that Buba and I encountered was an ~alledgedly~ nearly filled up container that would sail to a Southern English port, shortly. Well, one must make do with what one has got... On July 30, the day before Id fly back to the Netherlands, we delivered our 250 kilograms of cargo to the port. It was supposed to sail at the latest on August 16, and I was promised to receive all relevant information by e-mail immediately afterward. So when September came and I still hadnt received anything at all, I rang the alarm myself. Shipping was slightly delayed I was told, because one entrant had withdrawn his rather large amount of cargo. But no worry, replacement cargo had already been found, so this time the container would definitely leave port before the end of September, guaranteed. Well, to cut another long story short: in October I was given a second and a third version of virtually the same story. Luckily, in those same weeks I also got wind of a shared container that was said to be sent directly to Holland. And yes, indeed, that container now holds our dried mango as well, thus very soon reversing the problem: I will be in The Gambia, while the mango is in the Netherlands. However, with hindsight I am very happy to have bought the expensive high-quality packaging material, absolutely light- water- and airtight, so I need not worry about the quality of the dried mango. No, the real problem was liquidity of assets: you cannot supply what you dont have and you wont be paid for what you havent supplied... Alas, the webshop will have to wait another while. Prize At the Partos Innovation Festival (Oct.2) Mama Diop was awarded for being an innovative development solution. The prize appeared to consist of some exposure in a rather limited circle, but still attracted the attention of Nienke Poortvliet of the Business-in-Development network. She put me in contact with Dirk Terwel, experienced in starting up companies in developing countries. He thinks Mama Diop is a powerful idea and came up with a financial construct to enable building a full-scale SFD. However, the grants available for this purpose can only be applied for by a registered business with a minimum annual turnover of one million Euros. By coincidence I had recently come across such a company after leaving a sample bag of Mama Diop-mango at a nuts-and-dried-fruits stall at the Groningen market. After the owner contacted me we had two very useful discussions thus far, both indicating a well-matching chemistry. PARTIN (= Association of private development initiatives) The Annual congregation of Partin held in November was honored by the brief presence of Cabinet Minister Ploumen (International Trade), presenting prizes for the best story and the best photo concerning a private development project. Mama Diop did not win one of those, but was invited to supply the small thank-you present for the Ministers kind cooperation. Of course that was a bag of dried mango, XL-size, to provide enough space for a customized extra-informational label. As yet this has not resulted in any contacts at Cabinet level... The managers and the Market Survey Hitherto the SFD-prototype only produced anything when I was around. Of course that must change. Moreover I want to free my hands to explore any opportunities that may come up to build one or more full-scale Solar Fruit Dryers. Earlier this year we had already selected four Kartonkas to manage production in the Sandele SFD. At present Ellen and I are about to finalize the program for their training that is planned to start in January. An important part of it will consist of a survey of the domestic market for needs that could be satisfied by using the facilities inherent ly given with the SFD. Our group of management trainees comprises of many much desired but diverging individual qualities, so it remains to be seen whether they can be merged to make a great team. We shall see. And hopefully you will too, in one of our next newsletters.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 22:55:05 +0000
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