They arrived! They arrived! Those wonderful fruit pulps and juices!

Then we had to start all over again. Find a new supplier since the ones we settled with, would just not return calls. This time around, we would have to do it while living in Sydney. We informed the Customs and Quarantine that we were interested to bring in some new exotic varieties. The officer asked me to email him the varieties and specify their production process. In the meantime, asked me for my mobile number and said he would call me in a couple of weeks. Gus and I burst out laughing. A public employee calling you on your mobile to advise? Will never happen. Two weeks later, he called: “Mr. Marco-you can go ahead.”I choked: “100% sure? “. “Yes, mate”. “And what about any releasing documents?”. “No need. It will be electronic and awaiting in customs files”.

I was beginning to get a feeling on how quiet and wonderful and peaceful is to do business in First World. We found a new and professional supplier in Ole Country-no NGO, just sheer ole slave work etc. Kidding. They had all Hygiene International Standard Certifications . But…they had to apply to Export Public Officers in Ole Country to ask permission to…export!!! So we sat for another couple of months and discover the officers had not got to a final conclusion. The plant’s director called them up and one last fruit was missing the permission. We asked them to go ahead and produce, but they insisted on getting permission for the whole range. So, another month went by, then it was a festive season, and when we finally had it shipped it was August. It arrived to our storage on 1th October, exactly one year after we first flew to Ole Country to look for suppliers.

When I opened the first boxes, even frozen at -18C, you could literally smell the wonderful aromas from fresh fruits. Most of them are still wild harvested in Ole Country, so you can’t possibly ask for any better product to work with- no certified organic though, because farmers that side of the world don’t have the money to pay for these certificates. They are, as you know, very very expensive… Just harvested by simple people and processed immediately into juice by a plant nearby the area. What a dream come true: they pulps came in various colours also-white, purple, green, yellow, red. There is one thing about life that is worth knowing: nature is not dull, after all. And life is not only about apples , bananas ,pineapple, mango and berries.

Tell you later.