A raspberry nursery near Arusha National park in Tanzania, with views of Mounts Meru and Kilimanjaro. It sounds like a dream, and that’s exactly what it is for Erik Koster. Yet it seems he’ll soon move back to the Netherlands.
It was very likely that Erik wouldn’t remain in the Netherlands after he received his Tropical Agriculture diploma. In the 1980s, he worked for seed improvement company Hazera in Tanzania for five years, and he fell in love with the country. “As soon as the children were secondary school-aged, we moved back to the Netherlands, but I couldn’t settle down. I didn’t like the daily rat race, and I wanted to start for myself. My wife understood, and we moved back to Tanzania when our children went off to college.” In Tanzania, Erik came into contact with Geert de Weert from Kwekerij de Westerbouwing, who creates varieties suitable for warmer climates with his seed improvement programme. “Because of his expertise, we gradually became more experienced with growing in African circumstances.”
Erik runs raspberry nursery Kilihortex, of which Geert and Fruit World Breda are shareholders. The raspberry nursery currently consists of 16 hectares of cultivation in tunnels equipped with drop irrigation. The season is from late September until June. The raspberry grower indicates the months of March until June are best. “In December and January it’s actually too hot here, and our production is small then. We are currently working on setting up a second farm, as expansion, also in the north of the country.” By now, the children have followed in his footsteps. His eldest son works for an American seed improvement company in Kenya, and his youngest has started in the family company, and will take over management of the current raspberry nursery within the near future.
Luxury product
About 120 Tanzanians are employed by the nursery. During the season, twice as many people work at the company. “Weeding and harvesting is mostly done by women. Men won’t do that, while the women enjoy supplementing the family income,” he mentions. Women with families often pay for their children’s education with their wages. “We mostly work with a permanent group, and by now they have become experienced employees. The warehouse has been run by two local women for years now. It’s truly wonderful to see how they have managed to elevate the level.” A large part of the production is meant for export. Erik explains that low labour costs outweigh the air freight costs. “We also sell raspberries on the local market, especially in the period that Europe has their own production on the market. Yet the fruit is still very much a luxury product here.”
The Koster family lives on the east-side of Arusha, at the foot of Mount Meru. “We live in the middle of our farm, a wonderful place to live,” Erik says. “With parks like the world famous Serengeti park, the Indian Ocean and Zanzibar nearby, there’s always something to do. Lovers of nature in particular can have a lot of fun here. Besides the beautiful environment the climate is also very nice. A sort of everlasting spring weather, with a few months of exception during the year, when it becomes very hot. All in all, the quality of life is much higher here.” Besides, Tanzanians are very friendly people, and they’re much less aggressive than in other African countries, according to him. “They are less achievement-oriented. That sometimes makes it difficult to get things done. Yet it is praise-worthy that the Tanzanians are very satisfied, especially regarding material goods. They don’t have much, but continue to smile. We Europeans could definitely learn a thing or two from them.”
Erik’s youngest son will take over the company next year. The 67-year-old raspberry grower thinks it’s time to take a step back now, in part because of health problems. “It could very well be the case that we move back to the Netherlands. My wife would like to go back. In part because health care here isn’t as good as in the Netherlands. I am personally being treated by a Dutch neurologist. It won’t be easy to leave Tanzania, but I fondly look back at the years we’ve had. I’m happy that our family company will be continued, and I hope we’ll be able to visit it in future.”
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Erik Koster