Warm greetings from the Eleanor's Garden Team!
Over the last few somewhat turbulent months, we have once again been reminded of the amazing team the Father has put together to keep the EGBF company moving forward. We have struggled with sickness, both nagging colds as well as several more serious things, both among our expat staff and also our local employees. Add to this delayed production dates, unexpected travel plans, organic produce sourcing issues, the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 has brought its share of frustrations and disappointments. Through it all, the Father has been meeting us where we are at and reminding us of His good plans for us and His company.
The uncertainty of our production start date has also made it hard to finalize contracts for our raw ingredient purchases. While trying to coordinate all of this and get it lined up, we have several times found that suppliers have fallen through because we weren't able to move fast enough, or weren't able to get the money in the right place at the right time because of currency control restrictions. We are now left with a choice between sourcing some of our ingredients further afield with a greater cost and more challenges with managing compliance to our standards or having our first year’s production as conversion organic rather than full organic.
Getting a barcode for our pouches took longer than expected. We are few weeks or so out from having the barcode finalized, after which time we can order our pouches, an action that will help set our new production date. There is a 6 week period between placing our pouch order and receiving the pouches. We are also running up against Chinese New Year where some companies shut down for a month or more, so this will likely delay our pouches further. The delays are frustrating and costly, but the end is in sight! We are also very happy with the final pouch design. Please pray that communication between us and the pouch manufacturers would result in a really quality end product from them!
In good news, Michael was able to take a trip a couple of weeks ago to our preferred apple and pear supplier. When we first visited this farm it stood out straight away as being run by someone seeking to understand how to do organic farming well, rather than by someone who is simply trying to tick certification boxes to get approval. Our challenge was that they were reluctant to sell the 5 tons we need as they usually only focus on much bigger orders. The 10 hour round trip drive paid off, and we now have apples and pears in our cold store. Apricots and Chinese dates are also purchased and are ready for collection. We had to delay purchase of spinach and zucchini, and they should be ready for us in May or June. The supplier has so far been very generous in not enforcing the penalty clauses due to us delaying our order, which is a huge blessing.
While our production staff are waiting to start, we have arranged some optional Chinese language classes which are proving very popular. This may enable some of our basic staff, in time, to move on to higher level positions that may require some level of Chinese. It will also help them in their day to day lives. Most of these ladies previously had almost no Chinese language, and some also cannot read and write in their own mother tongue.
We are thankful for the opportunity to live in this place. We are also excited to see what the next few months hold and look forward to the day (hopefully soon!) that we will be able to officially sell our product.
Over the last few somewhat turbulent months, we have once again been reminded of the amazing team the Father has put together to keep the EGBF company moving forward. We have struggled with sickness, both nagging colds as well as several more serious things, both among our expat staff and also our local employees. Add to this delayed production dates, unexpected travel plans, organic produce sourcing issues, the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 has brought its share of frustrations and disappointments. Through it all, the Father has been meeting us where we are at and reminding us of His good plans for us and His company.
The uncertainty of our production start date has also made it hard to finalize contracts for our raw ingredient purchases. While trying to coordinate all of this and get it lined up, we have several times found that suppliers have fallen through because we weren't able to move fast enough, or weren't able to get the money in the right place at the right time because of currency control restrictions. We are now left with a choice between sourcing some of our ingredients further afield with a greater cost and more challenges with managing compliance to our standards or having our first year’s production as conversion organic rather than full organic.
Getting a barcode for our pouches took longer than expected. We are few weeks or so out from having the barcode finalized, after which time we can order our pouches, an action that will help set our new production date. There is a 6 week period between placing our pouch order and receiving the pouches. We are also running up against Chinese New Year where some companies shut down for a month or more, so this will likely delay our pouches further. The delays are frustrating and costly, but the end is in sight! We are also very happy with the final pouch design. Please pray that communication between us and the pouch manufacturers would result in a really quality end product from them!
In good news, Michael was able to take a trip a couple of weeks ago to our preferred apple and pear supplier. When we first visited this farm it stood out straight away as being run by someone seeking to understand how to do organic farming well, rather than by someone who is simply trying to tick certification boxes to get approval. Our challenge was that they were reluctant to sell the 5 tons we need as they usually only focus on much bigger orders. The 10 hour round trip drive paid off, and we now have apples and pears in our cold store. Apricots and Chinese dates are also purchased and are ready for collection. We had to delay purchase of spinach and zucchini, and they should be ready for us in May or June. The supplier has so far been very generous in not enforcing the penalty clauses due to us delaying our order, which is a huge blessing.
While our production staff are waiting to start, we have arranged some optional Chinese language classes which are proving very popular. This may enable some of our basic staff, in time, to move on to higher level positions that may require some level of Chinese. It will also help them in their day to day lives. Most of these ladies previously had almost no Chinese language, and some also cannot read and write in their own mother tongue.
We are thankful for the opportunity to live in this place. We are also excited to see what the next few months hold and look forward to the day (hopefully soon!) that we will be able to officially sell our product.
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