Survey: Why has TerraCottem failed to be a commercial success in the region it was created for?
We asked 52 people their opinion about the use of soloutions based on water absorbing polymers eg TerraCottem, and its use in countries suck as Burkina Faso .
The people were chosen on basis of articles they had written about Burkina Faso , research they are doing, their experience etc.
Besides asking why they think this kind of solution has, untill now, failed to break thru, we also tried to define their knowledge of the product TerraCottem and their expertise, in order to make a qualification of their answers.
E.g.: apart from the suggestion that TC was too expensive, we also asked what they thought the price was.
It was perhaps this kind of transparancy in our survey that caused most people not to answer, or answer in a different format then on our survey itself.
This survey had the ambition to be qualitative, not quantitative.
We sent this survey out for the first time in the first half of February, with a reminder the 15 th of March.
In this section, we try to reflect the answers and remarks we received. To discuss these remarks indepth, just follow the links…
Number of answers
We only got 12 answers in total:
We wanted to have the opinion of the 4 separate personalities – owner, director,
technical director and researcher - inside TerraCottem NV but they refused.
Interesting is what TerraCottem NV gives as answers for the different questions:
Reduction of 50% of water use, 50 % more plant survival and 50% more production. (Compared with the 46% we found in our statistical approach )
In an extreme environment, TerraCottem NV lowered their expectations to 25%.
On the question why TerraCottem (or alternative) never succeeded in Africa, TerraCottem NV points mostly towards the economical situation (corruption, lack of money, political reasons), mentality (conservatism) and a lack of knowledge of the product. Last but not least, even TerraCottem mentions the price as a problem. The price TerraCottem NV mentions is the FOB Antwerp price!
And as problem in the product placement, TerraCottem NV talks about development, marketing and credibility.
Also interesting were the remarks Davy, TerraCottem NV researcher, made beside the different questions: it depends on the ground and vegetable what results are made. Somewhere, for the watering regime, one has to choose between water savings and optimal growth. More biomass means more water etc.
Another remark was made about the hidden cost of TerraCottem: corruption and import taxes were not to be neglected for many countries.
The answer from TC dialogue vzw, was similar. Only on one point they differed: the price was lower then 3 EUR/kg, which used to be their "humanitarian-projects" price for TerraCottem. (See also TerraCottem and NGO's)
6 out of 11 others did not provide us with any answers. Or forwarded the survey (without further response) or prefered not to answer as they were not familiar with the solution. 2 others told us they would react later, but didn't.
This did not mean they were not interested ! Some of them asked us for more information.
The fantastic 4 (who really answered) :
3 out of 4 mentioned the price as a problem (the 4 th did not know). Also cited were: lack of information and knowledge of the product and marketing (2), distribution, conservatism and credibility (1).
On the effect of the product, only 1 answered (25% more plant survival, 25% extra growth, and 75% water savings)
The economic and investment environment also got 1 answer, as well as the reaction that cheaper alternatives exist.
One contact mentioned that there also seems to be also a cultural barrier for the use of TerraCottem, and that there are some mysterious rumours that TerraCottem would attract termites (never confirmed). Some other contacts created some doubt due to the mysterious way all experiments had been stopped in Burkina.
Conclusion of the survey
We suppose most of the people simply did not answer because they were not familiar with the product TerraCottem or alternatives with absorbing polymers.
Those who did answer strengthened the point that there is a lack of knowledge, even under the intelligentia occupied with the problems of the sub-saherian area.
If there is one reason why it did not work, price is on top of the list, but out-numbered by the silent majority of branding, and more general marketing of the technology.
Those who seem to be more aware of the situation mentioned economical and political environment as an obstacle.
On our journey in Burkina Faso , we had the possibility to exchange some more information.
See: What did we learn from our journey in Burkina Faso?