Daabon... Organic Food and Biodeisel.

Our first lecture of Monday morning was given by a former EMBA at Temple University, Juan Pablo Campos. He was the director of Daabon in Japan. Daabon is an organic food producer based in Santa Marta, Colombia. Early this century, they entered Japan. We learned about the struggles they overcame to enter the market, as well as lessons about the world organic food market. When Daabon first entered Japan, they came with organic bananas. However, at the port, all the bananas were fumigated... which means they lost their organic certification. After three years a solution that was reached that literally involved scrubbing the bananas with water, soap and a brush to make sure they were clean for Japanese inspection! In fact, the Japanese organic governing organization is the hardest audit to pass... this is after numerous food scandals were uncovered in Japan including food producers changing expiration dates for years without anyone knowing!

It was fascinating to learn about organic farming versus traditional farming, and makes me happy that I usually try to buy organic produce... it's worth the extra money!

We also learned about Daabon's efforts to start producing biodeisel (which will start production in September) with the use of palm oil... sounds promising.