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MATTHIEU BARENDSE: My father and his father were in the flower business.
I was eighteen years old when he... when I became responsible for the company.
It was in 2007 that we started looking into
growing freesia in a country other than Holland.
We wanted to look for an area with a good climate
and with well-organised logistics, and that is how we came to Ethiopia.
There are direct flights to Europe,
and their seasons are the opposite of Europe's.
I saw on the map that Ethiopia and Kenya
were potentially good areas for growing freesia.
So, I bought a ticket, I had four phone numbers, and I went there.
I rented a car with a driver and went to have a look over there.
So, I went to Ethiopia and Kenya, and I met a guy who is now my partner,
and so the company was established.
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SAMRAWIT MOGES BEYENE: My name is Samrawit Moges Beyene.
I am in partnership with Freesia Ethiopia,
where we are growing freesia flowers in Sululta,
which is twenty kilometres from Addis Ababa.
We had some rough years, because we made a change from freesia to statice,
because freesia was not bringing us what we had expected.
In the beginning, it was very hard to find customers, to provide them with statice.
So, we went looking for a market, and now we have a very good market.
And that is why we came to RVO for a guarantee, because we wanted to expand.
And now we have a bigger market for statice.
MOGES BEYENE: One of the most important aspects of this sector
is that you don't use machines, like other sectors do.
It is mainly done manually, throughout the process.
You know, the harvesting, the planting and of course the packing, shipment.
So, as it requires a number of people to do the work,
the number of employees that are hired is high.
And it requires careful work,
and this gives a chance to women.
So, the majority of the employees are women.
One of the main things in the empowerment of women is securing their own income.
I am really proud to say Freesia Ethiopia is the first company in the sector
to have disabled people.
There is this lady, an American lady who is training the disabled.
They are mainly mute and deaf: they cannot speak, they cannot hear.
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BARENDSE: We needed money to expand,
and we got the money from the Zemen Bank in Ethiopia,
with the guarantee of RVO.
And we are very happy about it,
because of the possibilities for companies like ours,
to expand in Ethiopia or another African country,
or any other country in the world.
We like the way RVO provided the guarantee for the Zemen Bank.
There are 120 people working over there.
It is very important to have a job.
I feel responsible for them, and I still believe that we can grow crops over there
for a European market and make a profit, and that is what we do now.
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