After four years of working in international trade between Europe and China and having had the opportunity to develop and set up a business unit for my former employer I decided to start my own business. Growing up in Africa and later traveling throughout the Eastern and Southern region I focused on an opportunity there. This came during a trip to Fiji where by chance I was introduced to furniture makers Pacific Green Industries (www.pacificgreenfiji.com). The possibilities of coconut timber unveiled themselves and I was sold. I already had enough knowledge of the agricultural possibilities in East Africa and realized that the Mozambican copra plantations and surrounding markets might be undeveloped.
For the past two years I have gathered all information I could get my hands on related to the processing of coconut wood. In the same period I have visited various companies in Holland, Fiji, Mozambique and Zanzibar to learn about the possibilities. I am currently working with Scanza workshop in Zanzibar to gain practical experience in the dynamics of coconut timber. Along the way I have developed an extensive network of people involved in researching, processing and marketing coconut wood or related products.
My trips to Mozambique have given me sufficient confidence in the potential and real possibilities of setting up this operation.
Since a month I started working full time on my business.
