NABC |

White Bird International, a development company for projects related to nuts and dried fruits in Africa. On march 9th 2009 at their head office in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands, we've spoken to Gerard Klijn, the owner of the overall company and Teus Visser, general manager of White Bird International.

Can you briefly describe what White Bird International is about?

I go back one step; initially we are traders or brokers, intermediaries, representatives in nuts and dried fruits. That's my background; I come from a family business, my parents had a company importing nuts and dried fruits. That's why in '93, when we started Global Trading, that's what we did and that's what we still do. At some stage I was visiting Africa every year or twice, three times a year. There are many possibilities or opportunities to develop business in Africa. And that's what we've started to do with White Bird International. As a separate development company from the marketing or broking company 'Global Trading', to keep things really separate. On the one hand we sell for African companies or international companies, on the other hand we develop in Africa specifically the processing of primarily cashew nuts, so that's our foundation. We started in 2004 in Benin with a PSOM project, 2006 with a new project with PSOM in Mozambique. We are very strong in the development of cashew processing facilities. Mozambique is a very good example where I met an entrepreneur in 2002, a guy by the name of Filipe Miranda. He started a unit that was very small; he employed 55 people, he exported one and a half container of cashew nuts. We shook hands and started to develop his business. At some stage White Bird International took equity in his business. We developed more and got more entrepreneurs etcetera. At the moment there are almost 10 factories and 5.000 people being employed, we exported 150 containers. So, in six years basically we went a hundredfold. Based on that example we went to Benin, copied the Mozambican entity and we implemented it in the Beninese environment, adapted it to local environmental issues or topics. We're developing Benin now. So, that's what White Bird does. So we look at what grows locally. Is it in our line of business? Yes, than we can start finding an entrepreneur, give him a handshake and say 'ok, let's develop together'.

You've mentioned several projects and they've been running for a couple of years now. What are you're experiences in doing business in Africa, in those countries?

That it's difficult. You must have a long-term vision. That you must be very resilient, and you must be able to conquer a lot of negative impacts. There have been very many obstacles, more than I ever imagined.

What kind of obstacles?

There is a free trade zone in Benin, for example. Now, we are in a different area, so the government said 'no, but we also have a free trade point'. So, you get a free trade point designated on your land. It took us one and a half years to get all the documents completed. And that was one of the minor issues. There were many more issues. You're starting up industrial development in Africa, where most people are either agricultural driven, so they're farmers, or they're traders, like in Benin. Well, these two will not really work in a factory, so it's a problem. So, you think with all your, let's call it European wisdom or Westernised wisdom; you think about developing an industry. There are no people who want to work under a roof; they all want to be outside. You have to get over that obstacle. My wife was saying at some stage; 'Are these people not poor enough'? Why are they not willing to work at the factory level? They should be starving before they move? Well, maybe that's true; Mozambicans has gone through the complete dip, hit the bottom and are on the way up. Mozambicans they're breaking the doors to work, again. But it's different, it's a different environment. These are some of the obstacles.

Are there any other African countries in which you would like to start a project?

We're working in Ghana and Burkina Faso at the moment. And we're helping entrepreneurs in both Tanzania and Kenya. Tanzania and Kenya are very much at arms length. In Ghana and Burkina Faso we are very involved, so we have effective partnerships. So for us there are five focus countries; Mozambique, South-Africa, Benin, Ghana and Burkina Faso.

How do you see the future for Africa? And for White Bird International in Africa?

I think Africa is one of the greatest potentials, as they can grow almost everything. So that's the positive; they can grow almost everything, there's land, water, people, everything. Negative side; there's HIV/aids, so work force is definitely going to be an issue. And once you do larger sized farms you are going to mechanise. So it's going to have a different impact on employment. The difficulty of Africa is that there's a huge, we call it, corruption impact. I don't believe they see it that way. But there's a huge impact on the hierarchy, the top of the country or city even. It must be taken care of. It's in their culture. And it's a huge obstacle for the development, because a lot of entrepreneurs, especially western entrepreneurs, will actually lose confidence and not invest.
So, where does that place us? In the development of cashew processing we will be extremely successful, because of the way we operate. We always work with a local entrepreneur, because he knows the environment a lot better than we do. He can implement in the environment of a specific country. One of the reasons why people are not successful and we also went into the same pit. We copied Mozambique into Benin and then we started to adapt. We should have first said; this is what Mozambique does, adapt it to Beninese experience and then implement. We went the other way around. So it took us another year and a half to actually get started in a positive manner.
If the western world understands that; you need a local entrepreneur. You need to implement your ideas and their ideas. I think we will be successful, because I think we are very open to that. We had a West Africa meeting a couple of weeks ago, where all of our West African partners were here from Ghana, Burkina and Benin. In one of the presentations the following sentence was said; 'a good partner hears what his partner is not saying'. And I think that for any western going to Africa, if you can keep that in mind; to listen to what is not being said. It will actually help you a great deal. We are aware, we still have obstacles and we still have things that we don't understand or do not want to understand. I think we are quite well equipped.

What is the reason you joined the NABC?

You should ask Teus Visser; I've made him responsible for White Bird International, because also we realised that the organisation was growing. We've grown in two and a half years from four people to 23, so we're doing very well. The biggest department is our development department. We've made it a very special entity, because what I realised is when I started to have minor investments in Africa; that people see you as a rich person from the western world. Doesn't matter whether you are or not; I don't want to be seen like that. I want to be working in the environment that I'm put. I want to do well there. I don't want to be seen as a guy who might have a bag with money on his back.
We've made it a separate department; with all the projects that we're doing, actually a lot of people are looking to us to actually form alliances or relationships. We are seeing an enlargement of potential and new projects. Teus has become the responsible person and he started to make other connections. I knew about the NABC already and he decided to become a member.

Teus Visser: The reason why we became a member of NABC is because of the networking possibilities they have for us. We we're looking for some partners in Africa. While searching on the internet we found NABC as a possibility to find new network partners in all kind of businesses. They have a lot of experience, also through the EVD. We are working with the EVD also through the new PSI, former PSOM. That's why we came to a network meeting with some other African entrepreneurs or investors from the Netherlands. Through that network meeting we came in contact with NABC. And now they have some business trips to Africa, some of them are to countries we work in, such as Mozambique and Ghana. So that is why we were interested and became a member. We joined two months ago, so it's quite new to us.