“Anyone else would keep their hands off it – we do it anyway.” Salem El-Mogaddedi trades in countries like Afghanistan, Myanmar and Ukraine. Countries that are extremely unstable politically and where people suffer from oppression and war.
El-Mogaddedi and his co-founder Gernot Würtenberger still do business there. “We want to open up a market for the civilian population that would otherwise be denied to them,” says El-Mogaddedi in an interview with “Gründerszene”.
Your Berlin company Conflictfood imports spices, tea and coffee from conflict regions. To this end, the founding duo works together with the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and non-governmental organizations such as the British network Hand in Hand International.
The NGO supports people from crisis areas in further developing their skills in order to establish their own mainstay. This can include the cultivation of fields. Conflictfood then buys the goods from the farmers. “We bring their harvest to the European market,” explains Würtenberger.
The products end up in specialist shops for fair trade, bulk shops, on the shelves of the retail company Manufactum and in the online shop of the Berlin start-up. A classic business model that thrives on retail margins. However, the founders do not want to say how much Conflictfood uses it.
The founding duo gets coffee from Myanmar, for example. Since a military coup two years ago, the country has descended into chaos and violence. Critics of the current military regime fear severe penalties, even death sentences.
This also applies to the coffee producers with whom the founding duo of Conflictfood works. “Our local partners are no longer in the country due to the threat. They had to flee,” says El-Mogaddedi.
This has no impact on the delivery. According to the founders, the plantations will continue to be managed by employees.
But the situation on the ground remains unstable. The two founders do not know when the operators of this plantation can return.
How do you come up with the idea of founding a company that explicitly trades in conflict-ridden countries? The answer: a three-week trip to Afghanistan. In 2015, the founding duo visited children’s homes and other projects there.
At the time, Würtenberger was working as an architect in Berlin and Vienna – and was also a photographer. His co-founder El-Mogaddedi worked in the events and fashion sector. His father, who worked in humanitarian aid, accompanied the two.
One day they visited a group of women who, unlike all other farmers, were not growing profitable opium, but saffron. Opium is the basis for the drug heroin. By switching to saffron, they found a way out of the illegal opium economy.
“I still get goosebumps when I think about it,” says Würtenberger. The founding duo bought a few kilos of saffron from the women to resell it in Germany. The idea for Conflictfood was born.
After Afghanistan, the founders added suppliers from other crisis-hit countries to their portfolio. Würtenberger and El-Mogaddedi are now ordering tea from Myanmar, Freekeh, a special grain, from Palestine, pepper from Cambodia and brand new: herbal tea from the Ukraine. War has been raging there since March of this year.
A packet of 50 grams of tea from the country costs 12.50 euros in the online shop. The growing area is in the Carpathians, a region in western Ukraine that has so far been relatively spared from air attacks.
A lot of work and resources flow mainly into the cooperation with the producers on site. “It can be quite challenging. Our partners often don’t even know how to make their goods export-ready. We support them in this,” says Würtenberger.
The founding duo often visits their partners abroad. Most recently, the two were in Ukraine and Mozambique. The founders want to order sea salt from Mozambique in the future. The state in southern Africa is one of the poorest countries in the world. Armed conflicts and corruption make life on the ground difficult.
For the next year, the two plan to visit Afghanistan, despite Taliban rule, to convert saffron production to organic farming. Before each trip, the founding duo find out about the situation in the country and talk to people who are there, including journalists, for example. “We try to find out in which regions it is dangerous and where not,” says Würtenberger.
Are you afraid sometimes? In conversation, the two are relaxed when it comes to their trip to the Middle East. “The Taliban have been in the country for decades. They just haven’t been in power yet,” said El-Mogaddedi. In addition, it is in the interest of the Taliban to continue exporting abroad, adds Würtenberger.
Investors, on the other hand, are not so pragmatic. “Every bank and every investor finds our business too risky,” says Würtenberger. “The first question every investor asks us is: ‘What do you do when war breaks out and retail chains collapse?’ I’m already bored by this question.”
The Berlin founder has a strong opinion on the subject: “Trade with countries like China is just as risky.” The founder refers to the many problems in the movement of goods as a result of the corona pandemic.
At the moment, the founders are mainly worried about the poor economic situation in this country. “We are noticing that the willingness to buy sustainable products is declining and that customers are turning over every euro three times over,” says Würtenberger. El-Mogaddedi gets upset: “It’s so absurd. On the one hand, people love sustainability and social entrepreneurship, but then they buy from companies like Amazon, Aldi or Lidl and help them double their profits. There can be no social change like this.”
With the Conflictfood company, Würtenberger and El-Mogaddedi want to promote social change in their very own way. Each package of coffee, spices or tea also contains information about the country, the people and the local cultivation conditions.
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