Pelican News
Blue Skies
wins Queen’s
Award for
second time
Blue Skies has received the Queens Award
for Sustainable Development for the
second time. The award recognises the
company’s contribution to development in
Africa and South America by producing
fresh-cut fruit and freshly squeezed juice,
prepared within the country of origin.
Since receiving its first Queens Award in
2008 the company has continued to
strengthen its commitment to sustainable
development. In 2009 Blue Skies launched
a Foundation with two retailers to fund
development projects such as schools and
clinics within the communities it operates. The company has also
participated in a pilot programme to enable small scale farmers in
Africa to gain LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming)
accreditation for their fresh produce.
Founder and Chairman Anthony Pile said “It is a great honour to
receive this prestigious award for the second time. We aim to
deliver the best quality prepared fruit in the world, and to do so
in a way which is truly equitable. Receiving this award twice
clearly demonstrates the progress we have made in the field of
sustainable development.”
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April 2011
Blue Skies Newsletter
Ghana win
BA award
Blue Skies Ghana have been
awarded ‘Top Freight Forwarder’ by
British Airways. General Manager
Ruth Adjei, pictured above right,
attended the dinner and accepted
the award on behalf of Blue Skies.
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Brazil pass
BRC audit
Congratulations to Blue Skies Brazil
who passed their BRC audit with
zero non conformances. Auditor,
John Currie is pictured above left
with Flavia Mometti from BS Brazil.
In search of Mango
Anthony Pile reflects on recent travels
with the fruit team in search of mango
Ernest (our Chief Agronomist in Ghana), has
always enjoyed the written word and so when I
had finished the latest John Grisham, Ernest
pounced on it and could not put it down. Which
was just as well because he was on the annual
mango safari, as we call it, and that meant long
waits at airports and patiently sitting in the backs
of cars as we toured the countries destined to
supply us in the coming months.
Making the arrangements for the safe delivery of
good mangoes to our factory in Nsawam can be
adventurous like when the skilled team of
agronomists and procurers which included Rose
Azumah and Gloria Asare came upon a mob on a road in Burkina Faso angry
at the recent killing of a student by a policeman. Some quietly spoken words
by the team to the noisy leaders and a slow but non-aggressive departure
from the main road to circumnavigate the protesters worked and the vehicle
carrying the tough little procurement team was on its way.
Sometimes it can be hard like spending two nights in an airport waiting for
flights to the next destination. And occasionally it can be funny as it was
when the trio spotted the fattest tourist ever seen, legless from drinking
beyond his capacity and quite unable to remain upright by himself being
pushed and squeezed by five burly waiters into a reluctant taxi in Gambia.
Mostly it is fascinating though. The fruit team meet interesting people who
live simple but productive lives often in the harshest conditions. People who
chase the chance each year of making a little money for their communities by
persuading Blue Skies that the fruit is perfect for the consumers of Europe,
that the necessary practices for good agricultural husbandry are in place, that
the prices are acceptable and that the quantities are sufficient.
Egypt blood
donation day
Blue Skies Egypt recently held a blood
donation day for the National Cancer
Institute. Staff are pictured above
queuing up to give blood.
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Farewell to
Yolisa Mbie
Farewell to Yolisa Mbie who left Blue
Skies South Africa on the 8th of
March. Yolisa was employed on a
contract basis while Jabulile was on
maternity leave and fitted in very
nicely with the team. She is friendly,
with a good sense of humour, full of
great ideas and a good team player.
We will greatly miss her and wish her
all the best in the coming future.
But at the end of the day the hardy little team of Ghanaians have time to
reflect, to write up their report and to relax with an exciting novel before
facing the next day and its adventures.
A
Above: The leaving party for Yolisha at
Blue Skies South Africa
Above: Ernest Abloh, Ghana’s Chief Agronomist relaxes at the end of a hard
day looking at mango farms.
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Yoli said at her leaving party: “As
many of you may know, today is my
last day at Blue Skies South Africa. I
would like to bid you all farewell. I
enjoyed my time here and I love the
Blue Skies culture; may it continue to
live for many years.
During the five months that I have
spent here, I have gained
considerable knowledge and thus I
shall always cherish this as one of
the most satisfying phases in my
career. I will greatly miss the team
long live Blue Skies and thanks for
everything!”
By Waydu Matala, Blue Skies SA
Another great Brazilian
partnership with Itauera
Itaueira is the biggest supplier for melons in Brazil and a great partner
for BSB, who believed in our potential since the beginning. In March,
12,000 pots of fresh cut melon were produced for important events,
such as Carnival and a Race in the city of Campinas (pictures above).
The premium quality of raw materials together with Blue Skies
innovative fresh cut technology in Brazil, make possible that the events
are always a success, according to José Roberto Prado, Itaueira’s
owner. Partnership: This is the BSB way to be!
Report by Flávia, Marina, Adalgisa & Patrícia
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Work begins on Ghana
school building project
A sod cutting ceremony was held at the village of Abortia to mark the
beginning of work to construct a new school for the community.
The project is being funded by the Blue Skies Foundation.
A number of staff attended the ceremony to represent Blue Skies
including Ernest Ablorh, Emily Boateng, Emmanuel Bedjina and
Wisdom Tukpih. The entire community turned out in traditional
costume to celebrate the start of the project and put on a cultural
presentation for the benefit of all attendees. Thanks to everyone for
helping to make this event a huge success.
Report by Alistair Djimatey. Blue Skies Foundation Manager
Blue Skies UK
launch summer
drinks mix
Blue Skies UK have successfully launched
a new summer drinks mix with
Sainsbury’s. The mix is designed to be
used for making summer fruit cocktails.
Well done to everyone involved in
making the launch a success.
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Tsho Tumelo
Lefu: My joy
and hope!
By Jabulile Lefu. Assistant Technical
Manager, Blue Skies RSA
I am a proud mom to Tsoho (means
Resurrection) Tumelo (means faith) Lefu,
the joy and hope of my life. My husband
and I have truly experienced ath miracle
from the Lord born on the 20 of
December 2010. He is the most adorable
baby ever and having him in our lives
has changed us. He is 4 months old and
grows cuter and stronger by the day.
Above: My husband with baby Tsoho.
We are really the most happiest with
him being our first born baby, he has
truly brought us so much warmth and
joy, we look in anticipation to more of
what the Lord will do. We waited for
Tsoho for so very long after we got
married, but at last he came, in God’s
time. To all those married couples who
are desperately looking for a child, my
advice is, do not stop trusting in the
Lord, the giver of life, what he did for us
he can do for you…We have a lot to look
forward to as we do our best to take
care of him in the best way we know
how!
Above: Emily Boateng cutting the sod at Abortia.
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People of Blue Skies
Ruth inspires
entrepreneurs
This month Anthony Pile meets Alma and Meisie
who run a shop that sells Blue Skies products in SA
When visiting South Africa this month, I got into a discussion with
André about what motivated us to do what we do in Blue Skies. Most
business people when asked this question would come up with the
traditional responses to do with profit, pleasing the customers
producing top-quality products and so on. We concluded that all these
things matter very much indeed, but the icing on the cake comes from
seeing the development of people and seeing them do the things that
make them happy.
Take for example Alma and Meisie, pictured here outside the shop and
their little business which they set up themselves for the benefit of
Blue Skies. They have 30-50 customers each day and they sell products
made in the factory. “We sell more juice than anything else to passersby, but the local police and traffic cops cannot resist our hot meals!”
Alma told me as she stirred a pot of stew on the stove. Alma, who lives
in Grootvlei, proudly showed me the picture of her pretty little four
year old daughter, and told me she looked forward to the future for
herself and her child. “The shop business has opened our minds to the
possibilities we all have” she added as I looked at photographs of her
family.
Meisie, also a mother and also in her late twenties, is married to a
policeman and they live in Greystaad. I asked her what language they
used to speak to each other since one is Zulu and the other Sotho.
“Mainly Zulu” she answered adding they were inseparable friends and
loved their job running the factory shop. She travels to work each day
by taxi and says she loves coming to work. I looked at her to see
whether this unsolicited remark was tossed out for my benefit, but
they both nodded and Meisie said “we are very happy and feel good
about the future; we are sure nothing will stop us and thanks to Blue
Skies we feel ourselves fortunate women that we can stand on our
own”. I closed my notebook, handed back their photographs and
walked back to the factory thinking that last remark had made my day.
Blue Skies Ghana GM Ruth Adjei recently
presented at an e-summit on
entrepreneurism for Barrytrum (BT)
Group International at the British
Council in Accra. Ruth is pictured above
addressing a packed room of delegates
who attended the programme.
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Abdallah finds
cotton giant
Thanks to Abdullah Mohamed from Blue
Skies Egypt for sending in this photo of a
cotton tree. Abdullah found the tree at a
hotel garden and claims it is the tallest in
Egypt. Abdullah said “It’s very very rare
to find a cotton tree this tall as they are
usually one metre or less”.
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Anthony visits
farms in Egypt
Above: Alma Mokoena and Meisie Mngomezulu who run the Factory Shop in Balfour.
4
Above: Hossam Homayed one of BSE
farmers with Anthony while his visit to
farms in Egypt. In the photo also
Mohamed Abdul-Razik, Mahmoud Ali
(chief agronomist) and Ali Saqr
(agronomist) of Blue Skies Egypt.
First Aid Training for Ghana
Staff Keep
Egypt Tidy
Above: Blue Skies First Aiders went through a two-day training on First Aid on the
31st March and 1st of April. The program was organized by Wisdom; the Health and
Safety Coordinator. The training was done by the Ghana Red cross Society of Ghana.
By Fatahu Abdul, Blue Skies Ghana
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Some tit bits on Exercising
The views expressed in this column are the views of individuals and do not
necessarily represent the views of Blue Skies or Pelican News
Physical exercise is very important and one of the trump cards to good health. You
can eat the best diet in this world and still be unhealthy because of inadequate
physical exercise. Anytime I go jogging (I jog between 6 and 7km every other day) at
dawn I rarely meet people. I realized during over a decade of exercising that most
people prefer to exercise during weekends and at their convenience. There is no
comfort zone in this business.
Lately there has been an attempt by some staff of corporate bodies like ours to form
Keep Fit Clubs. These clubs are mainly for group physical exercises and I think it is
very laudable. However it will be very regrettable for these groupings to lose focus
and have other functions slipping in. Some one’s way of exercising can encourage
another person. Some common exercises worth considering are, skipping, cycling,
jogging, brisk walking, weight lifting and press ups.
There are numerous advantages in exercising and I wish to urge all those involved to
continue and they will never regret it. I will like to reveal some tit bits about my
personal experience to all:.
• Physical exercises require a lot of discipline and hard work
• If you cannot continue please do not start at all – NO EXCUSES
• Create time for your exercise ( I wake up at 4:20 am to jog or exercise)
• It must be consistent otherwise the purpose for exercising will be defeated
• Drink a lot of water 30 minutes after exercising/generally drink about 4 liters of
water a day
• Minimize your intake of alcohol
• If you can, exercise for 45 minutes every day (20- 35 years) 40 minutes (35 – 60
yrs) every other day with light exercises like walking and skipping on “free” days
• Do not over eat because you are hungry after an exercise otherwise you will put
on weight. Eat more vegetables and fruits (but not Blue Skies fruits)
• Minimize your consumption of fatty or high cholesterol foods like meat pie,
kelewele (spiced fried ripe plantain chips), turkey tail, pork, butter bread, oily
stews etc
• Get an exercise kit - cotton T Shirt , a PE Pant with light canvas (exercising with
heavy clothing can mess you up)
• Eat a balanced diet in small quantities and do not eat heavy meals after 4:pm (
light soup with smoked or fresh fish or tea with a little bread will do the trick)
These tit bits if adhered to can help you to overcome certain expensive illnesses like
high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and others. If you get attacked by any
of these, you will have to manage and learn to live with them It is always better to
prevent them by starting your exercises at a younger age and keeping it up. There is
so much to do for yourself and the company and it will be disastrous for you to be
visiting all kinds of doctors for medical reviews and checkups. I think this makes some
sense to you.
By Shakespeare Djokoto, Agronomy Dept. Blue Skies, Ghana
5
Above: Two groups of staff in their work
place. Laundry staff (top) and Packing
Store staff (bottom). The two places are
always very well organized and can win
an award for "best organized place" in
Blue Skies Egypt.
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Chrissie wins
Miss Charity
UK NPD Coordinator Chrissie Orr has
completed a number of challenges to
raise money for charity as part of her
involvement in the Miss England
competition. Chrissie completed three
tasks including an aerial obstacle course
at the Leicester Outdoor Pursuit Centre.
In total Chrissie raised £880 for
Rainbows and Macmillan Cancer
Support and was awarded the title of
Miss Rutland Charity 2011. Chrissie also
won Miss Popularity for Rutland and
goes through to compete against other
winners from around England.
Above: Chrissie carrying out the aerial
obstacle course
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