In 2010, Soil & More International started a company in Ethiopia. It is a joint venture with its local partner, Hussen Ahmed. They set up a large-scale compost production site on 18 hectares of land. It solves two problems: getting rid of rose growers' organic waste and addressing a soil fertility issue those rose growers and many other regional farmers and growers face. Aart van den Bos, who owns Verbos Business Development, recently visited Ethiopia. Here is his feedback.
"In recent years, Soil & More Ethiopia (SMEt) has begun sharing composting knowledge with other parties. They also set up an extensive incubation program," Aart begins.
"It's in the Addis Ababa area and is not only for organic waste but nowadays also for paper and plastic waste (PET bottles)."
Photo: Receiving the award from the Mayor of Addis Ababa.
"What's special is we received an award from Addis Ababa's mayor. SMEt has helped more than 300 small waste management sector businesses get off the ground, which has created more than 6,000 jobs," Aart continues.
"It was, of course, great that Olympic medalists Sifan Hassan and Abdi Nageeye were in Ethiopia at that time. Both have a keen interest in SMEt's work. Sifan visited the SMEt office and took some time to talk about a partnership that will take shape soon."
Sifan Hassan and Aart at the SMEt office.
"We also visited Abid Nageeye, who recently won the Rotterdam Marathon. He was at a training camp an hour outside Addis Ababa. Abdi wants to start a joint venture to give something back to Ethiopia and Somalia. The day after his victory in the Rotterdam - where he set a new Dutch record - we met again to work out the plans a little further. Hopefully, there'll be more progress to report later this year. I'd love to keep you informed along the way," Aart concludes.
Hussen and Aart with Abdi Nageeye, the winner of the Rotterdam Marathon 2022.
For more information:
Aart van den Bos
Verbos Business Development
Mob: +31 (0) 651 788 924
Website: ajb@verbos.nl