SEKEM‘s Journal for Economy, Culture and Society in Egypt
SEKEM Insight Nr. 71 - May 2008
Dear Reader, every year at the same time during the first days of May SEKEM’s German support foundation organises the “SEKEM Day”. While the original event was initially held at the Öschelbronn hospital in the small city of the same name close to Pforzheim it moved to the Rudolf-SteinerHouse Uhlandshöhe in Stuttgart a few years ago.
Earth Day
Support Abroad
Raw Materials
SEKEM Participates in Egyptian Earth Day
SEKEM Day Again Attracts Hundreds
Global Scarcity Affects Egypt too
SEKEM Celebrates Earth Day Initiative Participates in Public Celebrations in Cairo
The recurring event has become a jour fixe in the agendas of most SEKEM friends and many of its former employees a great number of which is today working in Germany again. Moreover, the day that always boasts a number of speeches, artistic performances and other cultural events with participation by SEKEM representatives draws the attention of leading figures from the European support foundations and young people looking for ways to gain their first work experience in social, cultural or managerial positions at the initiative abroad. In this issue Waltraud Bandel, long-time friend and supporter of the SEKEM initiative introduces SEKEM Insight’s readers to the event and the German foundation’s contributions to making it happen.
Your Editorial Team
Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish signs the „Earth Day Charta“
This year‘s „Earth Day“ was celebrated on 22 April 2008 at one of Cairo‘s most renowned international cultural centres, „El Sawy“, with the participation of SEKEM. It is the challenge of the annual event to draw the attention of children, their parents, and fellow Egyptians to the challenges of protecting the environment and to giving related issues a higher rank on the public agenda.
eral topic of a more sustainable development for everyone. Many Egyptian dignitaries arrived for this year’s festivities. Since children are the main target group they specifically addressed the younger members of Egypt’s population and underlined the need for them to contribute to the protection of the natural resources of the planet for their and future livelihoods.
The spectrum of subjects discussed is broad: environment education, Egyptian regulations fostering environmental protection, climate change, water conservation, and waste management under the gen-
Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish was honoured for its successes in environmental protection and, as the guest of honour, raised the “Earth Day Flag” and signed the “Earth Day Charta”. Samaa Shehab
Page 1
German SEKEM Day Again Attracts Hundreds Guest Speaker Prof. Götz Werner Presents Concept of the „Unconditional Basic Income“
Several hundred visitors arrived for the SEKEM Day
Several hundred visitors again arrived for this year’s “SEKEM Day” of open doors on 26 April on the premises of the Stuttgart’s RudolfSteiner-House at the Uhlandshöhe. This year the event had been combined with an evening contributed to by Prof. Götz Werner, founder of the “dm” chain of drug stores and a long-standing partner of SEKEM. For the first time ever the “SEKEM Day” encompassed almost 2 full days. It has always been the intention of the German SEKEM support foundation to enrich the formal framework of its annual convention with artistic contributions. Therefore, this year’s SEKEM Day started off with a lecture at the Stuttgart city hall on the global food crisis. It attracted a large number of visitors keen to learn more about viable approaches to a more sustainable and more humane global development for all mankind. Both contributors to the evening, Prof. Götz W. Werner, renowned advocate of the “unconditional basic income”, and Helmy Abouleish, CEO of the SEKEM Group, succeeded in not only presenting theoretical concepts but also practical approaches to the almost 600 participants. They were able to demonstrate through
unconventional ways how they had achieved positive impact in their respective societies and economies on a grander scale. In the following plenary moderated by the foundation’s Claus-Wilhelm Hoffmann, everyone could sense both the thoughtfulness and the enthusiasm of the audience. To encourage this was also the aim of Stuttgart’s “One World” project. The initiative, spearheaded by the city and presented by its mayor Klaus-Peter Murawski under whose auspices the event was also held, aims at contributing to the “8 Millennium Goals” of the United Nations. The initiative is a much-needed and desirable measure to further deepen the relations between the cities of Cairo and Stuttgart. The following “SEKEM Day” proper was held following the motto of “SEKEM: Radiating Enthusiasm”. Following the annual members’ conference of the German foundation at the occasion of which its board of directors was reelected, Helmy Abouleish allowed guests from the general public a deeper insight into the inner workings and future plans of international cooperation of the SEKEM initiative. Visitors were impressed by the initiative having, after 30 years of growth, reached a level of development that allowed it to reach out to other worldwide partners on an increasingly broad scale. From Egypt, SEKEM assists many of its partners through advice and practical assistance. The following contributions by Dr. Roland Schaette, Dr. Hans Werner
and Tobias Bandel made an impression of the audience with their lively, hands-on reports from practical cooperation in social development, medicinal research and sustainable organic production. Some visitors took the chance to ask SEKEM’s senior representatives questions. Asked what would be the “secret recipe”, if everything its partners ever touched succeeded, if there would be no problems, Helmy Abouleish replied: “We are grateful for all the problems we have because by tackling them, we grow and we learn - this is the way we move forward.” Members of the audience who retorted that the optimism of the initiative’s CEO must have something to do with the hot Egyptian sun could feel relieved to hear him speaking as a business man again when he responded: “Well, I will have to ponder how to export our optimism, then.” Many co-workers contributed to the success of the event. The organisers extend their gratitude specifically to the employees of the Stuttgart city hall, of the Rudolf-Steiner-House, and to the youth of SEKEM as well as the performing artists. The Alnatura GmbH contributed through a generous financial donation. Waltraud Bandel
The board of directors of the SEKEM support foundation: Herr Claus-Wilhelm Hoffmann, Dr. Roland Schaette, Renate Raubald, Waltraud Bandel, Christina Boecker
Page 2
Food Crisis Reaches Egypt Why Does SEKEM Continue to Export Food?
Speaking for the SEKEM group of companies, SEKEM Insight outlines the reasons for and the background behind the decision to continue exporting foodstuffs to foreign countries. The reasons for the latest unrest in Egypt on the grounds of exploding food prices are mainly due to the fact that the system of equal and just distribution of subsidized wheat and bread has collapsed. This, in turn, is partly due to the fact that Egypt’s strategic reserve of wheat was severely reduced due to soaring world market prices. The augmentation of prices is indeed also an effect of speculation on the international raw materials markets. SEKEM has been producing a part of its produce for export markets for
more than 20 years. Long-standing partnerships with many firms from the organic food sectors in Europe, Asia and North America have grown steadily through this cooperation. These trade connections allow SEKEM to economically act in a reliable fashion. They also make investments possible as well as the more and more jobs in the Egyptian rural labour market were SEKEM’s firms are located. Currently, there are almost 2.000 co-workers benefiting from the revenues they generate just as do the social and cultural ventures. Something similar can be said about many other Egyptian firms because the Egyptian foodstuffs economy is to a large part relying on the international flow of goods: it is the exports that allow additional economic and technological development that will eventually benefit the country and its people - and allow necessary imports also of foodstuffs. The early potatoes that are currently being traded are mostly produced for export markets. It is neither realistic nor feasible to make these available solely for the local markets. Most of the raw produce is perishable and cannot be stored for an extended time causing financial loss for many. The same holds true for many other products.
Agricultural plays a much greater role for larger parts of the populace in Egypt than it does in Europe
However, SEKEM does not focus on export alone: about half of its revenues are being made on local markets with foodstuffs and medicinal products. This spring, for instance, SEKEM began to cultivate another surface of ca. 1.000 ha on the Sinai peninsula using organic and biodynamic farming methods. This is also a contribution to ensuring the adequate supply of the Egyptian and international markets with high-quality foodstuffs. Cultivation has also begun on a second equally extensive area close to the Oasis
Bahareya in the Western Egyptian Desert. At the same time SEKEM is engaged in manifold activities to take on its global responsibility for preserving biodiversity and helping to stem climate change: through the composting project realised with the firm Soil & More from The Netherlands almost ca. 60.000to of high-quality compost could be produced in 2007 that will allow the cultivation of more foodstuffs. Since the compost is mostly sold to local agricultural firms these are enabled to reduce their use of pesticides the production and distribution of which would normally put substantial burdens on the natural environment. Moreover, the new composting plant helps reduce methane emissions, a greenhouse gas more dangerous than carbon dioxide. Methane would normally be released into the atmosphere through the usual decomposition processes of organic material in the ground. During 2007 the new plant has reduced carbon emissions by 120.000 CO2-equivalent tons - certified by the German technical certification agency TÜV. At the same time SEKEM supports several other projects in fields such as regenerative energies, biomass and solar energy to reduce Egypt’s dependance on fossil fuels. SEKEM needs to rely on international partnerships and trade relations to continue the way it has set out to go of economic, ecological and cultural change in Egypt. It intends to do so together with its customers everywhere. Not only do these relationships generate valuable income. They also generate challenges to become better, more productive and develop more effective solutions to the world’s most pressing problems SEKEM can help solve. Christoph Kampschulte, Christina Boecker
Page 3
Drying of Herbs Starts at New Minya Plant Over the past year we reported several times on the new drying plant for herbs at SEKEM’s firm Lotus constructed in Minya in Southern Egypt. Over the first few months of this year, reports of the first successful production runs have been coming in: the first batches of dried peppermint, curled mint, parsley, dill and coriander have been distributed from the new facility.
Lotus. 100t are to be produced as a first batch. In the past the fresh onions had also to be transported to the SEKEM central farm - this year the new plant will be used for drying onions for the first time. Now, a dried product much smaller in volume will be distributed to Lotus from Minya. This will also lead to savings in fossil fuels for SEKEM’s trucks travelling the route.
The plant means a tremendous increase in productivity for the farmers of the area a great number of which have been working for SEKEM in the field of herbal cultivation for years: until recently the herbs had to be dried on their farms because the transport to the SEKEM farm would have been harmful to the delicate goods. Without the new technology there was always a high risk of quality loss during the drying process on the farms.
Christina Boecker
On 7 February just in time for the harvest season a team of 7 began to operate the Minya plant. They had been trained for several months at SEKEM’s Lotus factory and are being supervised by an experience product manager. In one week the first drying runs of onions is scheduled to begin in Minya, one of the key products of
SEKEM’s Young Musicians Perform in Public The annual presentation of the musical achievements of the pupils of the SEKEM School was this year held on 6 May. The 52 male and female pupils took the chance to show their fellow students, parents and relatives what they had diligently worked on over the course of the last year using their personal musical instruments. The students who come from the primary up to secondary classes presented their most loved pieces on violin and cello, soprano and alto recorder, and even trumpet, an uncommonly broad selection of musicals instruments for the Egyptian countryside. Most of the parents had never heard their children play and were thus profoundly impressed by their youngsters’ achievements. The pupils usually do not exercise at home but in school where there is usually more tranquillity than in their often poverty-stricken homes.
Correction
Minya, half way between the Mediterranean and the Nassr Dam, is the latest location for SEKEM‘s newest ventures
Impressions from SEKEM
Christina Boecker
In issue April 2008 in an article on the annual reports of the SEKEM companies we mistakenly reported the yearly production of cotton to be 401.000t in 2007. The cotton production in 2007 has been 400t overall for the entire SEKEM Group.
Pupils at the SEKEM School begin to play on their own instruments already during primary school
The SEKEM School in many regards follows the pedagogical maxims of the Rudolf-Steiner-School movement. That applies specifically to musical instruction that already starts in the lower classes. Our picture shows a audition at the SEKEM School, an integral piece of musical education that is held annually and is open to public participation by co-workers, friends, and parents.
Imprint: Publisher: SEKEM, Egypt The editorial team of SEKEM Insight would like to thank all correspondents who have contributed to this edition. Editors: Christina Boecker Bijan Kafi Contact: SEKEM-Insight c/o Sekem Holding P.O.Box 2834 El Horreya, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt
Page 4