This week I have to cut my deadline for the blog to Wednesday as I am travelling on Thursday to Scotland and Friday onto Perth. That means just two days to write and edit this blog which is effortless if I do not get distracted. I find in retirement distractions, or lack of focus, is easy to come by so as normal, I will write a couple of paragraphs between whatever diversion happily comes along such as lunch or a drink with our neighbours who always bring cheese, wine and chouriço ensuring a two-hour social snack with homemade wine. I will delay posting until the normal Friday as usual. We are dreading what man-made delays we will encounter at the airports both on departure from Porto and arrival in Edinburgh. Further, will the trains be running to Perth on Friday or will they be on strike?
“In these days of high-speed communication coupled with advanced technology in all modes of transportation, we now struggle to get from A to B within a set time. This is a grim indicator of the state of the world.” - Peter McSporran
Last week I touched on corruption at the elevated level of politics and big business. What breaks the news this week? Some of the senior members of the Labour Party who are openly supporting the rail strike all received donations in the form of cash from the strikers’ representative union (RMT) over the past few years. What is that deemed, if not a vested interest? I am sure their continued support for the strike will not go unrewarded. At the very least they should abstain from voicing a viewpoint unless there are more strikers than rail commuters in their constituency. That of course is impossible. If you were a member of a board, you would have to resign.
I have never consciously bought any apparel for the brand or logo other than a Springbok rugby supporters jersey. I buy simply for the colour and fit. For many years finding clothes to fit was a challenge as I was XXXL. My old clothes now hang unused in a wardrobe replaced with casual shirts which are Rozanne’s cast-offs. Luckily she has a good taste in colour and practicality. Things I would happily have worn on the farm or when fishing. I did treat myself to new jeans which I could not try on in the store because of Covid-19 restrictions. On returning home they were found to be too big so on going back to the shop, without Rozanne's assistance, collected what I thought was the same jeans in a smaller size, only to find, although they were the same brand and colour, that they were slim fit on the legs. This seventy-two-year-old has now been wearing skinny jeans for over a year and will continue to do so. I did not fancy another trip to the store and as I am Scottish, will make do. At least I get noticed. I did not change my underpants or socks though. Any chance Rozanne gets, the slightest tear seen in the wash, she throws my droopy drawers away. I may have to purchase some new ones next year as the stocks deplete.
Getting back to Ghana on the World Bank Mission I mentioned last week, we soon learnt that the pineapple industry there was in disarray. Why? Because the main export market, being Europe, changed what they demanded of pineapples in shape, size, colour and perceived taste. Traditionally smallholders produced most of the pineapples which I will give more detail about below. The gist of what I am trying to say is the market was demanding something with no consideration for the smallholders or the climate where they are being produced. That is to suit the demands of the chic and trendsetting consumers in Europe who at the same time actively decry the poverty in Africa. Due to their ignorance, most times they are a contributing factor. It is not just pineapples, it is most fruits, often making it impossible for the smallholder to grow or compete.
I am probably about to use the word inane wrongly here, but it is the most appropriate word I can think of to describe the majority of the Moyenne bourgeoisie westerners. Of course, they are surpassed by the wealthy Asians who are even more conscious of status and trends despite an inclination of using traditional medicines from animal body parts. The most inane is, the western press who recently wanted to headline the news about drink parties rather than the war in Ukraine, energy costs and importantly the cost of living. I am not an expert but when you print money and hand it out willy-nilly often to those that do not deserve it or require it, is that not a sure formula for inflation stimulation? Even the solution to being able to charge that electric car, we may well be forced to buy in the next few years gets little coverage. There are so many issues here, the efforts I see in installing charge-up points is pathetic. Another thought, how long will the electrical cables for overnight charging remain as your property in the city let alone in Africa. I predict their theft will be so common the police will fail to react to our calls.
Climate change and parties allow everyone to talk hypothetically rather than substantive. Where has good practical logic gone? One of the worst accusations I heard this week was by my least favourite wildlife presenter, Chris Packham, suggesting commercial poultry farming was the culprit in spreading bird flu rather than the real carriers, wild birds. Meanwhile, his devasted viewers on Springwatch carry a misconception that farmers are to blame despite the Scottish Veterinary Department picking out his misinformation. That about says it all for those that criticise farmers.
Recently climate change has been getting the blame for everything, it certainly is affecting some areas of the world a lot worse than others. It is hard not to get emotional if you watch a nature program narrated by David Attenborough about the effects of global warming on many of our flora, fauna, avifauna and ichthyofauna. For sure we humans are destroying the world as we have known, often directly contributing adversely to our own survival due to necessity brought about by forces of circumstance that we could and should address. For example, looking at subsistence farming as an honourable way to make a living, as many donor agencies and NGOs do, is both naive and irresponsible.
“Subsistence farming ensures enslavement just to feed oneself, it offers neither monetary reward nor long-term security.” - Peter McSporran
In some ways, we have achieved what I would consider miracle revivals in the animal world, one such being Humpback whale populations. I mention them as they are now a common sight in the Mozambique Channel. It appears also Dugongs are fighting back there with protection. They are an awesome sight especially interesting when the fish are not biting.
BUT, we are told that climate change is resulting in the starvation of people once again in Africa. What are we doing about this other than inanely blaming climate change and the war in Ukraine preventing grain, oilseed and oil exports? Last week I read an article in the Spectator by Aiden Hartley on the food problems in Africa pointing out the substantive issues needing to be addressed. Aiden wrote the book ‘The Zanzibar Chest’ well worth a read about his childhood in Tanzania and his dad’s exploits in Africa. Aiden once rang me when I was in Tanzania looking at the possible privatisation of the state-owned ranches. He reminded me on that call that his family ranch near Kilimanjaro had been confiscated by the state, just like our farms in Zimbabwe, with no compensation. I have no doubt he was tweaking my conscience, needless to say, I think the ranches are still in Government ownership and in disarray. I may be wrong?
Anyway, how inane are a wealthy, middle-class screaming about their perceived sensitivities and reasons for climate change, while insisting on branded clothes, imported fruit and vegetables, have consciously undermined the importance of your birth gender, happily support a bunch of thieves in the form of Black Lives Matter and now more recently and even worse insist on buying at extortionate prices designer pets which are just crossbreeds. Do they ever think about how these animals are bred, nor think of the number that are culled because they do not display the required traits in shape, colour or hair type? They do not drink milk as they perceive or have been told all male dairy calves are slaughtered while their mothers destroy the atmosphere with their flatulence but are happy to have a dog that may have had all of its brothers and sisters destroyed because they were not of a certain type. Have I been using inanely wrong?
Bush Life
On returning from my honeymoon I got stuck into wheat harvest, land preparation and groundnut planting. I enjoyed growing groundnuts even more than tobacco, although tobacco was such an interesting crop as it is processed as well as grown. Then back to the bush in October 1976. As I have said, the war was now much hotter. While attacks continued on homesteads and civilian targets, attacks on security forces and government establishments were increasing. During my call-ups, Diane stayed with her parents on the other side of town in a quieter area yet untouched by the war. On arriving back from honeymoon my boss’s son informed me in my absence some CTs were seen in the hills behind the farm.
Up until then, October 1976 my unit had suffered no fatalities, most injuries having been from landmines or vehicle accidents which were frequent on bush roads. All the other units were now suffering a greater number of casualties than us by luck, not skill. We operated in the same areas. We all feared vehicle ambush where you were very vulnerable. Meanwhile, the regulars especially in the Fireforce, often in separate contacts as much as three times in a single day, suffered much more than the territorials. In saying that, the white regular combat units being the Rhodesian Light Infantry and the SAS after 1976 consisted of over fifty per cent national servicemen and territorials. Some of those posted to regular units when on national service were told they were now on continuous call-up and signed up as regulars. Some went AWOL and left the country. If you want to learn more about Fireforce read the first-hand account in the book ‘Fireforce’ by Chris Cocks. He details some of the controversial incidents and atrocities of both sides including his own fears and personal feelings in a very honest account. Chris certainly never meant to become a regular soldier so his views of army life may be seen with a slightly cynical but truthful eye.
As stated earlier, our role as territorials was to patrol, or set up observation posts and ambushes to try to engage the enemy. In engaging or sighting, depending on enemy numbers, call in Fireforce. The Fireforce consisted both of heliborne and parachute troops. The other regular combat units were the Rhodesian African Rifles, a unit with black troops and NCOs led by white officers. The SAS, all white and the Selous Scouts, black and white including ex-CTs in their number. Some of the black NCOs would have made fantastic officers. Sometimes we would be called in as extra stop groups or sweep lines in support of Fireforce. I preferred working with the RAR to the RLI. The RLI had many foreigners who had no respect for territorials despite most of their number consisting of them. Eventually, all units except the RLI and SAS were both black and white. I should mention the engineers and armoured cars both of mixed-race army units, while the police had PATU and Support Unit as combat units along with the Police Reserve, mainly older farmers, often involved in skirmishes in farming areas.
We were also required to react to incidents in our areas of operation mostly on information through Special Branch or those instigated by the CTs such as ambushes, often on vehicles, both civilian and army, farm attacks, store robberies (for their resupply or just booze), landmines and atrocities against civilians of which there were many. More often than not this was by vehicle but also helicopter on occasion so all our sticks except on special missions were made up of four men. Small units, considering the enemy generally moved around in much larger numbers. Naturally, after an incident, they would ‘bombshell.’ That is; split up and regroup at a pre-designed rendezvous site. Before doing so they would give us a quick squirt. Follow-ups I found were the most nerve-racking as generally, CTs knew we were on their trail with trackers and could choose the ideal place to ambush or attack us. Nerves were always taut on follow-up while alertness was required night and day. We would always be keen to find and engage the enemy but also worry about the possible outcome and how we would react.
Just like regular units our sticks consisted of a stick leader who carried a radio, maps and a compass over and above his food and ammunition, not forgetting his rifle, grenades and spare MAG belts. We all carried our water and rations, one day's ration always did two days as we neither had the room or ability to carry full rations. We were therefore always hungry and rarely able to quench our thirst. The stick leader also carried mini flares for close-by recognition and the daily messaging codes. All messages were transmitted in code which changed daily. Woe betide you if you lost your codes. We all carried spare ammunition for ourselves and spare belts for the machine gunner. He was deemed the most stupid and the most important person in the stick. Stupid because he normally volunteered to carry the extra weight of a machine gun and some four hundred rounds in belts but when the shit hit the fan he became the most important member of the stick. When that gun talked, the enemy listened.
Unless on patrol or follow-up, we were meant to be clandestine therefore deploying mostly at night. That meant we regularly moved at night and holed up during the day either in good cover or in observation points. The days could be extremely boring with the constant irritant of Horse or Tsetse flies, Mopani bees and ticks. Our preferred dress was camouflage T-shirts and boxer shorts. Hats were varied. No protective jackets or helmets. Our legs, arms and faces were smeared in camo-cream which just added to our discomfort turning to a streaky paste with our sweat. Nights could be freezing in winter, some resorted to wearing their girlfriend's tights for warmth as sleeping bags were too bulky to carry. If it was not the cold that kept you awake at night it was the mosquitos in summer. The rainy season was preferred as it ensured water but we hated being drenched especially at night with no shelter. Funny how cold you can get even in summer when wet. It also provided the CTs with excellent cover as the bush canopy became thick with leaves.
As in any army, boredom was a real problem, coupled with some very exciting moments often never lasting no longer than a few minutes but if longer, still sped by. As in all armies much of the time, it was, ‘hurry up and wait.’
Unfortunately, E Company suffered its first death in that October when Phil Armstrong was killed in contact shortly after deploying at night. For a while, he had been in my stick but not that night.
Pineapples
I mentioned my trip to Ghana in 2010 last week, one of many trips I have had to that interesting and diverse country. Today I will chat about some of the challenges I was to see there which just reminded me of what the difficulties are in investing in Africa and reinstated my belief in what definite ‘no-no’s’ are when coming to investing in Africa.
One of the first companies we visited was Blue Skies, a company that produced fresh fruit juices and exported fresh pre-packed fruits to Europe. Its model was to purchase pineapples from smallholders, I think formed into Co-ops, and value-add by exporting a superior product both in process and presentation. Cold chains were essential in ensuring the product was fresh when it reached the supermarket shelf. At the time I was there, Blue Skies was considering the production of some of its own pineapples or perhaps contract third-party commercial growers. This was brought about by Europe favouring the MD2 over the Sugarloaf and Smooth Cayenne varieties. The Sugarloaf while very sweet was only sold in the local market but the Smooth Cayenne for many years found a market in Europe due to its sweetness and juiciness. Del Monte in Costa Rica introduced the MD2 which became more favoured in Europe, especially the UK, this having a major impact on smallholders.
The main attributes that made the market for choicest pineapples were the colour, brighter yellow, the size, smaller than other varieties, the shape, it stands on the supermarket shelf easily and has a better shelf life. The large supermarket chains then started to demand this as the variety of choice. This was a disaster for the local smallholder producer in Ghana as MD2 was much more expensive to grow, plant material had to be imported and management techniques required greater attention. If and when they tried to produce MD2’s they could not achieve viable yields or the quality required. For some reason, this impacted on all types of pineapple production in Ghana with even the traditional production dropping. Exports of pineapples from Ghana dropped from 70,000 tonnes to 35,000 tonnes virtually overnight, a disaster for the local farmer. Do those that refuse to drink milk because of their sensitivities know that pineapple flesh colour and fruit size preferences had a devastating impact on thousands of smallholder Ghanaians? Luckily, Blue Skies diversified and have expanded into a global brand getting a wider bouquet of product from local smallholder producers in a number of countries including Ghana.
“It is rare, an agricultural processing business can survive purely in small-scale production. Remember, often feeding themselves is more important than cash.” - Peter McSporran
We then moved onto a palm oil estate in Western Ghana. I cannot remember the owning company's name but that is not important. Once again they had a model, this one, including both outgrower contracted production and their own. They were having challenges with the outgrowers as small more informal mills were accessing their contracted crops. Meanwhile, the climate was not correct, the rainfall was too low, so required irrigation which was a limited resource. Their problems were further made worse by a legacy claim for compensation from local farmers who claimed to have lost land to the estate. That is; despite the previous owners having paid compensation in full. As we who have worked in agricultural finance in Africa know, as funding sponsors or international shareholders, land disputes and compensation issues are too politically risky. Rather withhold funds until, if ever the dispute is resolved. The company had a threefold problem, low outgrower deliveries, not enough water to compensate for rainfall shortfall and probably worse, a land dispute. Lessons. Do not invest in any project within the wrong climate zone for the crop to be grown, if you do so ensure you have double the water resources the crop needs, one drought can write-off five good years' profit. Do not touch any land with any sort of legacy issues no matter how minor. Sticking to these rules will stand you in good stead. The next project introduces another, ‘no, no.’
Prairie Volta was a rice-growing project in the Volta Basin. Over the years a lot of money had been burnt especially on capital equipment which by 2010 was now in a poor state of repair.
In the nineties, some $20 million had been spent without any meaningful production being achieved. To put it into perspective, when the latest investor group got involved, only 300 acres of the proposed 2,500 acres were under rice. In 2011 the new sponsors lead, a rice grower from Texas, presented a paper in Washington outing the challenges. He, Everett Anderson, openly admitted he ignored all the warnings about going into agricultural production in Africa and by that time of the presentation, a year after my visit they had sunk a further $6 million into the project, now achieving only 750 acres of production with a yield of 1.2 tonnes per acre as opposed to the forecasted 2.5 tonnes per acre. Meanwhile, they had the infrastructure to store 20,000 tonnes of rice and a mill to process 60,000 tonnes with little or no actual production. Everett listed many of the problems including his own and the previous owners’ mistakes but it was evident from his presentation where he believes the main blame lay. He said:
“Slow response/indecisiveness: This gets to the real problem! All of our Ghanaian shareholders and lenders were government related, Ghana Commercial Bank is 20% owned and board controlled by the government and Ghana Agricultural Bank is a government bank. All research efforts in Ghana and Africa are government agencies in one form or another. Regulatory quagmires littered the landscape. Funding requests were always six months or more from application to funding; the research efforts were difficult for a private company to access and did not address the real needs. Application processes were multi-layered, political, and tenured, no one was willing to make a decision and take action. Every cliché about bureaucratic behaviour was personified in this chronicle.”
I found Everett to be a forthright person, no doubt an excellent rice grower in Texas but Africa and its ways had the beating of him.
The lesson here is, do not go into business with a Government or quasi-Government organisation in Africa no matter what they promise. Their structures do not allow for timely decision-making which more often is clouded by corrupt self-interest.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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