Recap: from concept to realization

From a small pilot to securing funding, and from building our facility to starting up production: this year has been all about laying the foundation for Chalé Spirulina. What started as an idea has now become a reality. The journey has been anything but ordinary - filled with exciting milestones, unexpected challenges, and invaluable lessons. Looking back at the past year, it feels like we've been on a rollercoaster that has taken us closer to our vision of making a positive impact through spirulina production.

After two short visits in 2023 and a lot of preparations with KITA (Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture) and Alga.farm, I (Floris) travelled to Ghana on January 12th. Dela and Samuel, a Ghanaian couple who I met, offered me to stay with them for three months. Perfect, since their place was only a 10 minute bus ride away from KITA, where the production pilot was conducted. Waking up and suddenly living in a Ghanaian village was quite a culture shock, but the welcoming people in the community made this easy to overcome. Looking back, the first month was very challenging, since it was the first time that we actually produced spirulina in Ghana with the technique developed by Alga.farm. Together with the KITA students, we had to build a pilot construction with sand, stones and other local materials. Although we shipped a lot of parts for the bioreactors, we had to buy a lot of materials for the set-up itself at Kejetia Market, which is located in the heart of Kumasi and is said to be the biggest market in West Africa. On the plane to Ghana, I took a jerry can with 15 liters of spirulina culture. Luckily, it survived the trip and the customs did not ask too many questions. When I arrived in Ghana, we had to start cultivating the spirulina in drinking water tanks right away, as we needed to make sure the culture stayed in good condition. After a lot of long days, the pilot set up was ready and we could start testing the spirulina growth in our bioreactors for two months. The pilot was successful and gave us a lot of valuable insights, but at least as important was the time I spent with Dela and Samuel. They gave me a better understanding of life in Ghana and the local communities around Kumasi. Moreover, they introduced me to a lot of different people and showed me how to cook with the locally available food products. My stay at their place made the first quarter of 2024 a perfect start of the year.

Serving homemade 'red red' to Dela and Samuel (a local bean stew)

During the first quarter, I also spent a lot of time working on the future plans of the company. How would we set up a commercial production facility in 2024? Although I received a lot of help from KITA, I knew I had to find a co-founder who was willing to work in Ghana permanently. After a lot of phone calls discussing the concept and the challenges, Ruben joined the team. With working experience in Ghana and operational skills derived at other purpose-driven organizations, he was the perfect candidate. Besides finding a co-founder, we also needed money to set up the first commercial production facility. During the production pilot, I was constantly working on the cost calculations and a pitch for potential investors. I would only be in The Netherlands for one month (April), as the start of the construction was scheduled in May. This meant that within this one month I had to raise all the necessary funding. This resulted in a month filled with meetings with different investors and learning about start-up financing. Luckily, after a lot of conversations, we found a couple of investors who believed in our team and concept and were willing to finance the project. We were now all set to start with the development of our first production facility.

And so we did. In May, we started with the construction. You can read all about this in one of our previous blog posts (link). What made this period so special is that we actually started to create local employment; one of our main pillars. Besides creating over 6 indirect full-time jobs due to the construction, we also hired our first two full-time employees: Emmanuel and Gideon. We had a lot of challenges to overcome in the past couple of months, but eventually, this contributed to a great team spirit. Currently, we are starting up the production with the goal to start exports to our European customers in Q1 2025. From January onwards, we will hire our third local FTE: Patricia, a Kumasi University graduate, will join our team on a full-time basis to focus on the school meal program and improving our food safety protocols. Looking back to where the company was when I travelled to Ghana in January, I am proud that we have come this far within a year and that we are now actually delivering on our promises: creating local employment and fighting malnutrition. I am already looking forward to next year's adventures.

- Floris