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Desert sand

equestrian-surface-by-containers-to-Qatar
In a variant on a ‘coals to Newcastle’ story, Dutch entrepreneur Ben Agterberg has sold 300 containers full of sand to Qatar. The Middle East country might not be short of sand, but it needed a particular quality of material for an equestrian riding surface.

A total of 6,000 cbm of the mix of sand, geo-textiles and fibres were shipped in 300 containers from Port of Rotterdam to Port of Doha, in Qatar.

Agterberg said he received an unexpected call from an equestrian federation in Qatar and was to visit the country to inspect the local riding surfaces. “Equestrian sport is big in the Middle East and they asked me to take a look at what was there. A week later the federation visited me in The Netherlands. I gave them a price, showed them a trial and afterwards they gave me the job.”