It was a warm summer's day when Sergej Ivanovich heard unintelligible words on the sandy road in front of his house. He saw a German and a Swiss man just turning into the next street. A small boy was jumping around them. The son of Aleksej, with whom the two strangers were guests.
Already a day later, the two of them were sitting in Sergei's summerhouse, between the dwelling, the workshop, and the potato patch, drinking kvass and cracking the nuts of the Siberian pine, these said to give Siberian bears their vitality. They are Tim Mergelsberg, who is looking for new production partners, and Markus Flückiger, who accompanies Tim to Siberia in search of suitable bark for his canoes.
Sergej and his brigade have just come out of the forest. For three weeks, his men were deep in the taiga in this early summer of 2012, harvesting birch bark. He proudly shows off his full storage now: they were able to collect 20 tonnes of fresh, lightly scented bark this year. It is a good year for him.
Business is going well in other respects too. The order books are full, and he and his wife have a few reliable staff members.
Despite this, he is happy to receive visitors and new ideas. He is an open person who is grabbed by a challenge. Therefore, he passionately discusses possibilities and new product ideas with us. We are very lucky with Sergej: he looks forward to a good collaboration. This sets him apart from many of his colleagues, who are easily put off by the high demands and bureaucratic hurdles when dealing with international customers.
The effort is worth it: we've already received an initial package of sample shipments, and we're very satisfied: they are the most beautiful birch vessels we've had in a long time. Furthermore, they are all completely free of glues or other artificial materials. Sergej is set to produce for us regularly from 2013.
We also buy bark from Sergej. He himself says he would prefer to buy bark elsewhere, he is far too expensive. We still buy from him (and currently also from other harvesters). Reliability and mutual understanding are more important to us than the price: we hope to have found a long-term partner in Sergej, with whom we can also --- **User's original text (German):** Auch Rinde kaufen wir bei Sergej. Er selbst sagt von sich, er würde die Rinde lieber woanders kaufen, er ist viel zu teuer. Wir kaufen trotzdem bei ihm (und momentan noch bei anderen Erntern). Die Zuverlässigkeit und ein gegenseitiges Verständnis ist uns da wichtiger, als der Preis: Wir hoffen, mit Sergej einen langfristigen Partner gefunden zu haben, mit dem wir gemeinsam auch unsere --- **UK English Translation:** We also buy bark from Sergej. He himself says he would prefer to buy bark elsewhere, he is far too expensive. We still buy from him (and currently also from other harvesters). Reliability and mutual understanding are more important to us than the price: we hope to have found a long-term partner in Sergej, with whom we can also Ecological objectives to implement/realise.
Finally, Sergei sends us home with a sack bulging with stone pine cones. They contain lots of seeds with even more vitamins, so we'll have plenty to nibble on for a while.