This is a report from Mr. Miyashita, a local resident who was very helpful to us when we went to Uganda to purchase organic cotton last December.

Mr. Miyashita runs a Japanese restaurant, Yamasen, in the capital city of Kampala. When we went to buy organic cotton in December last year, she not only took us to a farm in Gulu, a six-hour drive from Kampala but also promised to see to the shipment of organic cotton on the way back. Not only did she take us to a farm in Gulu, which is a six-hour drive from Kampala, but she also promised to see the shipment of organic cotton on the way back.

Because we were not able to harvest as planned, we were fretting over the outcome whether or not it arrives in Japan.  However, we received the long-awaited happy news the other day.

We returned to Kampala after seeing the shipment safely with ourselves eyes.

The container was clean and we made sure that there were no noticeable holes or scratches.  All the loading work was done by hand.  There were four of us, and eight of us, including those who may or may not have helped.

It took about two and a half hours from the start of loading to sealing, including short breaks and paperwork.

As you can see from the photo, a lot of bare bails that are not wrapped in cloth are still there.  Actually, they had ordered the cloth for wrapping from a material company already.  However, its’ delivery has been delayed.

They said, “The batches we loaded this time have been wrapped from the time of delivery to the storage area, so they are fine.”  However, we realized that the entire site was very dusty, and a very small portion of the cloth was covered with dirt and dust where the cloth had been torn.

Either debris or water damage did not stand out there, including in the work area.

There were a few scraps of polypropylene “crop bags” that had been used as bedding when the bale was being stepped on, but they were new and didn’t seem to be falling apart, and I asked them to be careful not to get caught when pushing the bale up into the container.

There are several things sticking out from the cloth because the wire which holds the veil is loose, and we thought it was dangerous during the work rather than merely worrying about contamination, so when we pointed it out, they removed the wire easily.

They confidently said, “it won’t come loose even if we pull out one!”  Umm, we hope our worries are just overthinking.  This is a quick report on loading.

Ugandan organic cotton will arrive at Taishoboseki on April 8 in 2020.  There are fans waiting for this cotton, and we would like to use it as soon as it arrives.

Cheers, Ms. Miyashita.