Eleanor’s Garden Baby Food Update Jan 2016

 

First, we are happy to let you know that a short English video (do not be scared off by the Chinese, just push play) has been made available on line of our factory and first day of test production: http://english.china.com/video/life/2649/20160202/565485.html

Stepping back from the hurriedness and daily stress of opening a baby food business we realize that this month we really do have a lot to be thankful for, starting with getting our factory and office construction permit.  Some of you may remember when we first started this newsletter in the fall of 2014 we sent out an urgent request that this permit would be processed quickly, since we had already started building – the contractor was supposed to have taken care of it and hadn’t.  It took a little longer than we had hoped, but at the beginning of this month we received the needed government stamps and have this permit in hand.  As part of this process we have also made significant steps towards our completion certificate which we need to get the deeds for the buildings. We are also close to getting the deed to the land. And, happily, the final payment was made to the contractor and all subcontractors agree we do not owe any more money, so it seems we are finally free of what has been a very uneasy relationship.

In other exciting news, we signed a contract with 11 ladies from the village next to our factory. They are currently part time, so they can come in and help us when we need them for test or cleaning days.  Most of them are related to our factory’s gate guard family in one way or another.  In order to get them all ready to start work, we had to arrange for them to have health check and look into their social insurance payments.  We are thankful for our initial work force and ask Father that they will be blessed by their connection with this business.

 

On Friday the 29th of the month the quality inspection bureau made their official visit as part of our food production license application.  They had come out two weeks before and made severeral suggestions of things we needed to change.  As a result we had a busy couple of weeks rewriting documents, gathering contracts for the equipment we have purchased, and making arrangements to build new walls in areas she said needed to be separated off.  The final inspection was a lot less scary than we had anticipated, they didn’t need to see a whole production run, in fact they gave us just an hour warning before showing up Friday morning to inspect. The consultant checked to make sure we had fixed the problems she had noticed last time and seemed pleased with the changes we had made. We still need to send product samples for testing and then all of this needs to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration in our provincial capital. We haven’t passed yet, but we do give Him praise that the piece we had been fearing for a long time is behind us and seems to have gone well.  

Our final reason for rejoicing this month is that the paperwork came through for a new American co-worker to join the Eleanor’s Garden baby food team.  Partway through the month we learned the foreign affairs office responsible for the whole province had several concerns with his application which made us turn once again to the Father who can open doors none can shut. One of our local employees went to visit them on several occasions and graciously explained the situation.  This family has now not only been issued their letter of invitation, they have gotten a work visa from their home country, we have found them an apartment in town, and they are back in country packing up to move to join us towards the end of the month.  We are really thankful they are coming to work with us, and look forward to all they will add to the company.