…If you only knew, the trials and tribulations we been through…
I’ve been holding off on writing this post for a while now. I had hoped that my next post would be about successfully exporting the very first organic rice shipment from Madagascar. Our plan was pretty simple, and we got the rice to Tamatave (the port on the east coast) with no problem. But then we ran into lots of problems in dealing with the freight forwarder and transferring the rice into a refrigerated container (since it is organic rice we cannot fumigate it, and we decided to freeze the rice to kill off any insects larvae). It’s a long story, but the shipment has been delayed multiple times. So while I waited to post about our rice export until the rice had actually left Madagascar, my blog silences continued. Also, since the blog post I wanted to write related to my work, and my life has been all work lately, there have not been too many good other stories to share with you, my patient (hopefully!) readers.
So what have I been doing lately? Crisis management. There have been so many issues popping up here and in Tamatave for the shipment that I have stopped referring to my experience here as “project management.” Negotiating with mill operators, cargo loaders, freight forwarders and receivers, warehouse managers… exhausting. Every time we think something is definitely good to go, it all falls apart at the last minute. I think we are on Plan W by now… Such is the price of doing business in a developing country: everything can change at a moment’s notice, and nothing is certain until after it has happened.
But I am confident that the first organic rice shipment ever from Madagascar will be successful. The ship is scheduled to leave in the next week or so, and should be arriving in California in about 2 months (ahh, luxurious ocean travel!). Where is it going again, you ask? Lotus Foods, a seller of exotic and organic rice products mostly from the developing world. They are committed to fair trade policies and helping small farmers improve their lives via access to a new market. Here’s a video of their co-founder speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative recently.
When not in the midst of a new crisis, I have been preparing documents for our next rice planting season (beginning this month). This season, in addition to organic certification, we will be pursuing free trade certification. This means we need further training for our farmers and staff, and a lot more paperwork and records (the certifying agent must be able to trace wages to insure fair payment, for instance). A lot of this paperwork does not exist here, much like the mountain of organic certification paperwork did not previously exist. When dealing with rural farmers unfamiliar with lots of paperwork, and office workers unfamiliar with or lacking access to digital databases, these processes can be a real headache. But in order to create a better product and receive higher premiums for the farmers, it will be worth it.
Lastly, the question on everyone’s mind back home surely has to do with elections. Madagascar elections, right? Ha… well we have a constitutional referendum in less than 2 weeks, which will be followed by municipal elections in December and a possible presidential election by the middle of 2011. What does all this mean? Probably more rallies and political activity, especially leading up to the referendum. Also more politicians will try to make names for themselves and raise a ruckus of sorts. But as usual, I predict the whole process will continue to move excruciatingly slowly and no real changes will happen for some time yet. One interesting story involves the continuing illegal logging of precious woods in the eastern rainforest. Check out this (translated) article / video combination, which claims a direct connection between the current regime here and the illegal Chinese timber sellers. Interesting…
No comments:
Post a Comment