Esmeralda Farms burns down in Ethiopia
"By a political demonstration, the entire company of Esmeralda Farms in Ethiopia was set on fire. I estimate that 10 million spent on investment went up in smoke last Monday.
I have not seen pictures of the damage and establishing contact with our office in Ethiopia is difficult. Our manager there temporarily fled and information about the unrest is hardly out. It is still unstable around Bahir Dar, a city north of Addis Ababa. I understand that now ten companies, mostly horticulture, have been affected by the actions of groups that oppose the government. Now foreign investors are screwed that have had help from the government in setting up their business. A few weeks ago, local businesses were affected that have a link with the government. There were soldiers on our farm when the rebels came, they ran away because the group was too large. Everything was then was set on fire."
Esmeralda Farms has 150 ha of land available in Ethiopia. At the end of 2015 the first 25 hectares came in production. In the 17 ha foil greenhouse are grown mainly spray roses and outside Gypsophila is the largest crop in the group summer flowers. "Three times a week we got flowers to Aalsmeer from our location in Ethiopia. That was 30-40% of our turnover in Aalsmeer, the rest comes from our companies in South America. We can do nothing now, only wait until the circumstances and people is calm and we have to inform our customers."
''The warehouse and cold storage rooms were built on the growth that the company wanted to make in the coming period in Ethiopia. The tractors, trucks, containers, packaging hall all are burned. All irrigation pumps are damaged all made that the crop dry and I expect the film (plastic)greenhouses have also suffered major damage. Everything is gone. Ten million investment and a lot of time and effort has gone up in smoke within a day. Fortunately, there was only one person wounded.
Last year, I traveled 24 times to Ethiopia to start up the Farm.
It was one of the most peaceful countries in Africa."
For more information, check out the website of Esmeralda Farm