Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 129,062, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smallest and most northerly of the Australian capital cities, and acts as the Top End’s regional centre. Darwin has grown from a pioneer outpost and small port into one of Australia’s most modern and multicultural cities with the modern infrastructure and a booming resource industry.

Its proximity to Asia makes it an important Australian gateway to countries such as Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. Darwin is closer to the capitals of five other countries than to the capital of Australia: Darwin is 3,137 kilometres (1,949 mi) away from Canberra. Dili (East Timor) is 656 km (408 mi), Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) is 1,818 km (1,130 mi), Jakarta (Indonesia) is 2,700 km (1,678 mi), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei) is 2,607 km (1,620 mi), and Melekeok (Palau) is 2,247 km (1,396 mi) from Darwin. Even Malaysia and Singapore are only slightly farther away at 3,350 km (2,082 mi), as is Manila (Philippines) at 3,206 km (1,992 mi), and Honiara (Solomon Islands) at 3,198 km (1,987 mi).[11] Ambon, Indonesia, is only 881 km (547 mi) away from Darwin.

More more information on booming Darwin go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin,_Northern_Territory

We will have all legal, financial, regulatory and marketing systems in place by the end of February. Due to all of the previous work and the ease of doing business in Australia this deadline should not present any problems.

Welcome to the Top End Mate!

VCC already had detailed information of the top 30 coconut charcoal companies in the South East Asia after completing a very detailed analysis by HOTROD Ltd for a possible European prospect. Of those, we concluded that only five suppliers had significant scale, were well capitalized and offered experienced and professional exporters.

The meetings went well and VVC enjoyed their hospitality. No further information will be published until partnership discussions are complete and contracts are signed.

VCC has already conducted a detailed initial review of firms early in 2012 as part of our research on prospect FairTrade manufacturing partners. We began with Alibaba.com – the world’s leading B2B market, reviewing firms that manufactured packaged and distributed charcoal and Activated Carbon. Based on years of experience in sourcing with HOTROD we settled on 15 companies.

These 15 companies have been passed onto our Sourcing Specialist along with a detailed RFI (Request For Information). The initial review and qualification timeline is two weeks. During the Christmas period it is one of the best times to communicate with factories as they do not celebrate Christmas or New Year’s Eve and most of the exports clients are on holiday during this period.

The goal of this project is to identify two possible strategic suppliers for charcoal and/or Activated Carbon  with the plan to establish strategic and exclusive distribution partnerships.

The key decisions include:

• VCC will immediately close all Philippine-based operations. Only the Finance Manager will be keep on retainer during 2013 to provide future advice and assistance.
• The Palawan Fair Trade Coconut Association (PFTCA) will be placed under a 6 month moratorium. No additional funding will be provided for operations or for the completion of the FairTrade certification (FLO Cert).
• HotRod Hong Kong Ltd, parent company to VCC and PFTCA, will establish an exclusive distribution partnership with an existing Philippine-based coconut shell manufacturer.
• HotRod will become a wholesale distributor to Australia and Papua New Guinea.
• HotRod will sell two product types: BBQ charcoal and Activated Carbon (focused on the resource business).

Many of these decisions were hard to make but necessary. The ownership would like to thank all persons involved for their support and hard work. We would also like to highlight that the primary mission, to give dis-advantaged, small scale coconut farmer’s and their families a ‘fair’ deal based on the principles of FairTrade international remains an key mission of the owners.

After much discussion and several revisions we have decided to change the business model to minimize negative risks and better maximize our positive opportunities. Below I will attempt to summarise the key weakness/threats and strengths/opportunities of our existing business model to clearly communicate these to everyone.

Pro’s:

• Supplier Market – Palawan Island has approximately 1,700,000 palms, about the same as Thailand. Our research indicates that 95% of the shell does not get sold as charcoal because of the availability of wood-based charcoal and the same local population.
• Association – has been more than 500 members, representing about 130,000 palms. We have received very good support for the Association and many more members want to join.
• Wholesale Price –price FOB Brooke’s Point was competitive, even without the FairTrade price premium.
• Marketing – our range of marketing tools included a great website and Facebook platform. As well as professional logo kits, letterheads, cards, brochures, banners, packaging, sums and email direct marketing.
• Financial system – we had organized a very efficient and secure financial management systems based on Peachtree between the three organisations. Weekly, monthly and annual reports could be produced at a touch of a button and a secure and efficient supplier payment system with appropriate checks and balances.
• Team – we had built an excellent team including a Finance Manager, Operations Director, Office Manager and Marketing Director. It took many months of training and turnover to build this team.
• Logistics & Warehousing – after many months of analysis the most competitive logistics and sourcing strategy was established with suitable partners, contracts and pricing.

Con’s:

• Licenses and Permits – took 7 months to complete in 2012, even with the full time dedication of our experience Finance Manager and our CPA. In all 42 annual permits and licenses were required from some 23 departments & agencies. We were told that only by paying under the table bribes to the many different departments that process these documents could we expect to reduce the processing time to 1-3 months (so by the end of March). We were also advised that occasionally after paying bribes such knowledge is passed on to the NBI (National Business of Investigation) and related organisations that then require another bribe.
• Customs – asked us to pay for a Manila-based Custom’s agent to visit our facilities for an ‘Evaluation’ but refused to provide any evaluation checklist or criteria. We were also advised that it is common practice for customs agents to reject completely compliant export documentation until a bribe is paid – delaying boats in port and prohibiting boats from been loaded. Resulting in significant demurrage penalties and delayed delivery times.
• Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) – tax laws are complicated, often contradictory tax and open to ‘interpretation’. We worked for months with our CPA, Finance Manager and Palawan Island BIR to clarify the status of our two organisations. The BIR could not provide a confirmation on several important topics. For example, VillageCoco Charcoal, with 100% of our products destined for export, should be except of VAT/GST under Federal law. The BIR would not provide any written clarification of the rules and guidelines in Palawan (why is this required when it is a Federal law but it is). The only option given was to pay tax for two years and then receive rebates after that – a very unattractive option.

In summary, the pros of the current business model were outweighed by the inherent risk of doing business in Palawan Island.  So we have decided to work on a new business model.

The lunch and meeting was a success and attended by:

• Rodolfo Romasanta      Provincial Manager Palawan
• Domingo D. Frugal        PCA OIC Regional Manager
• Vince Gonzales             PCA Officer – Aborlan

The site includes the following features:

• 1.2 hectares of land, at least 0.6 hectares of flat gravel land.
• Shed that is 20 x 30 metres.
• 500 sqm of concrete platforms.
• House with 4 rooms, a kitchen and three bathrooms.

The contracts will be signed in January, 2013.

Google Maps http://maps.google.com/ is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot, car, bike or public transport and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world. Google Maps satellite images are not updated in real time; they are several months or years old.

Find our office by typing into Google Maps –

https://plus.google.com/105440722774893376271/about?hl=en

WikiMapia http://wikimapia.org/ is an open-content collaborative mapping project aimed to mark all geographical objects in the world and provide a useful description for them. It combines interactive web map with a wiki system. Both registered users and guests have already marked over 18,000,000 objects and this number grows every day. Currently over 1,500,000 people joined Wikimapia community. The User generated content added by users is available under a Creative Commons Share Alike license through both a web application and an API.

Find out office at -

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=9.730566&lon=118.7517366&z=18&l=0&m=b&show=/25074274/VillageCoco-Charcoal-Palawan-Office

More than 200 members attended the events.  These meeting represent the 1st stage in our comprehensive training and education program. As part of the Associations mission, we will educate our members about Fairtrade, Palawan Fair Trade Coconut Association and our future plans.

 The Special General Meeting included the following discussion points.

1.     Introduction of the PFTCA:

     a.     Who are we?

     b.     Our mission?

     c.     What are the benefits for our members?

     d.     What are the responsibilities of our members?

2.     Introduction of Fairtrade:

     a.     What is Fairtrade?

     b.     How does it work?

     c.     What are the benefits to our members?

     d.     Who do we sell the product to?

     e.     Who pays for the Fairtrade Certification?

3.     Introduction of VillageCoco Charcoal:

     a.     Who is VillageCoco Charcoal?

     b.     How do they partner with PFTCA?

4.     What are the plans for the PFTCA?

5.     Let’s watch a demonstration of test charcoal kilns to see how the kilns operate.

6.     Closing remarks.

VillageCoco Charcoal launched our Alibaba VillageCoco Charcoal last month. We have since received enquiries from Denmark, Japan, Korea, Iran, Georgia and Australia.

Alibaba.com is a B2B e-commerce company. Alibaba’s primary business is to serve as a directory of manufacturers connecting them to other companies around the world looking for suppliers. Alibaba.com is the largest B2B ecommerce web site in the world. For more information go to www.alibaba.com.