Regional Briefs

Zimbabwe: Cut Flowers Export Down by 95%
Zimbabwe’s exports of cut flowers declined by 95% to $3,1 million in 2015 due to the stringent export requirements needed by the government, ZimTrade has said.

In 2002, Zimbabwe was the second largest exporter of cut flowers in Africa, after Kenya, exporting flowers worth $60m globally, according to the country’s export promotion body.

In his mid-term fiscal policy review, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa proposed to eliminate export permits in the horticultural sector to provide an opportunity for cut flower growers to tap into the export market.

Historically, about 70% of Zimbabwe’s flower exports came from Banket, Concession, Glendale, Bindura, Harare, Goromonzi, Trelawney, and Kwekwe, mostly growing roses.

Other flowers included proteas, asters and chrysanthemums. The Netherlands is Zimbabwe’s largest export destination for cut flowers, importing an average of 69% of the country’s flowers in the last 15 years. ZimTrade said there was need for local flower growers to keep abreast with stateof- the-art production practices, as well as marketing techniques

Despite unrest in homecountry, Ethiopian Farms Present at IFEX Japan
The three-day event took place at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, Japan. It was a crowded show with an increased amount of international exhibitors. Jeroen van der Hulst of Flowerwatch, who was so kind to send some pictures of the show, was amazed by the presence of the Ethiopian rose growers. “Farms from the region Sebeta, like ET Highland and Yalkoneh were present at the show despite the terrible happenings.”

Kenya: 60,000 Flower Farm Workers Get 25 Percent Pay Increase
Over 60,000 flower farm workers across the country are set to benefit from a 25 per cent salary increase.

This is after the Agricultural Employers’ Association (AEA) signed officially a pending Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU).

Representing flower farm employers AEA Chief Executive Officer Wesley Siele said some 60,000 are the targeted beneficiaries of this new remuneration.

Siele said the two year CBA which will be expiring in July 2017 will be backdated to July 2015 when it was agreed upon.

“I know it is a little late to formalize this agreement but we have been having extensive discussions that have given us a clear way forward,” he said.

Apart from increasing pay, the CBA will also be looking into improving the workers’ working conditions.

Market Briefs

Dutch Flower Traders Provide Glimpse of Brexit Consequences
The British public’s vote to withdraw from the European Union is expected to trigger slowdowns in trade and higher costs for many European shippers, but the so-called Brexit may have one victim that’s been overlooked: Dutch flower traders. Officials at Royal FloraHolland, the world’s largest trading center for plants and flowers, say they are already bracing for their No. 2 customer’s departure. The June referendum did not have an immediate impact on the flower trade, but UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement last week that she plans to trigger a two-year window for exit talks by the end of March has put the Dutch flower traders on a deadline.

The traders — who trade more than 12 billion flowers per year and whose international business has a 40 percent market share — are now looking for new markets.

This decision is going to impact links down the supply chain, particularly in air cargo, as the traders are heavily reliant on it to move their cargo. “The Brexit, certainly for our industry, is not positive,” said Edwin Wenink, director of the center’s Floricultural Logistics Optimization Worldwide, or FLOW, program. “You can already see it coming. At the moment still we do not see a huge effect, but we can imagine in the future there will be an effect.”

Wenink and other Dutch officials peg that future date at two and a half years from today, roughly the date of May’s planned “hard break” from the European Union.

Ecuador: Agriflor Looks Back On Show With Satisfaction
Agriflor 2016 ended with a result that could be described best as “The Perfect Trade Fair”, according to the organizers. First of all the down town location of the exhibition was warmly welcomed by visitors and exhibitors. People felt relieved and freed to be able to leave for a while during show hours. Not because the need was there, but just the idea that one could leave for a break, to go for example to the hotel if one wanted, was giving everybody a feeling of independence.

Secondly, the size of the show was such that it allowed everybody to have an overview in one glimpse, without losing the idea of being in a complete show with all new varieties on display that the Ecuadorian flower industry has to offer. The 2nd floor enabled everybody to get a helicopter view of the fair.

The atmosphere in the Hall was of a composition which created a unique ambiance. Almost 150 exhibitors from Ecuador and 17 other countries on 5,500 m2 exhibit space, offered to over 1,000 international flower buyers a complete picture of what can be sourced in the market at this moment. Especially cut roses but also many other types of fresh cut flowers were put on display for the international flower buyers that visited this 3 day trade show in Quito, Ecuador.

Breeders Briefs

Olij Roses Joins Dümmen
Olij Breeding, with head office in De Kwakel, is to become part of the family of companies known as Dümmen Orange. The two parties have reached agreement on the transfer of shares.

This integration will enable Dümmen Orange to expand its assortment within the roses product group, giving it access to a wider sales network. Olij’s activities in the field of breeding, propagation and production of plant material in South America, Africa and the Netherlands offer opportunities to achieve maximum customer value and bring more innovations onto the market for growers.

“Becoming part of Dümmen Orange will enable us to offer a more extensive assortment to all our customers and make use of technical knowledge and logistics in order to create a better product,” says Ruud Olij, Director of Olij. “Our activities are highly complementary and we look forward to achieving enhanced added value for our customers and agencies worldwide.”

Biense Visser, CEO of Dümmen Orange: “We are very pleased that Olij has joined us. This means that we can once again take the next step in building our global position in the ornamental horticulture sector. Roses are an important product, a big market with a great deal of potential. We will therefore continue to seek further opportunities within this product group.”

The merger also brings benefits in the area of disease control and phytosanitary solutions. Through its Green Care policy, Dümmen Orange is adopting targeted measures to supply healthy cuttings and plants. Hans van den Heuvel, R&D Director at Dümmen Orange: “When preparing for the acquisition, our priority was the implementation of Green Care for roses, including an ‘Elite’ step in the process which will enable us to guarantee a clean product. Our customers can be confident that this will result in a long-term improvement within a few months.”

Knowledge in the field of DNA-marker assisted breeding is also being shared with Olij, allowing more targeted breeding of roses with, for example, resistance to diseases and pests. This will make both cultivation and the product more environmentally friendly and more sustainable. Harry Kloppenburg, Commercial Director at Dümmen Orange: “Olij’s activities offer potential for optimising our breeding activities for more crops and bringing better and innovative varieties onto the market. The synergy benefits of breeding, sales and marketing make this a great opportunity for both companies.”

The Latest Autumn Varieties by Interplant Roses
“The morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry’s cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town....”

That’s said in a poem by Emily Dickinson, but Interplant shows that the rose does contribute to the autumn season. Their new spray rose varieties have colors that match this time of the year. Interplant introduces the spray rose varieties Earth & Fire, deeply orange coloured, and Candelicious, with a soft white tone and pink edge.

Brexit and Plant breeder's Rights
Martin Ekvad outlines what the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) foresees as the likely implications of Brexit for plant breeders, both British and from other countries.

For the plant breeding industry, it is important to get assurance that titles granted before Brexit will still be valid in the UK following Brexit. The question of whether titles granted by the CPVO could be valid in the UK after Brexit, and possible conditions for such a scheme, is also frequently put to the CPVO. CPVO President Martin Ekvad said, “These and other questions will be subject to negotiations between the UK and the EU.”

Ekvad believes that it is important that a user-friendly solution is found which will not add to unnecessary administrative work for EU breeders seeking protection in the UK, and UK breeders seeking protection at EU level.

Introducing: Rose Safari a Premium Rose Selection
Leading strategic solutions and unpacking service provider Flower Optimal Connections are proud to unveil their brand new selection of premium Kenyan roses under the banner ‘Rose Safari’.

Rose Safari not only features exclusively selected premium roses from top Kenyan rose growers but also draws aesthetic comparisons between these roses and the beauty of Kenya’s Wild.

The brand marketing follows a journey of a lone ‘rose explorer’ as he visits several well known safari destinations in search for the best premium roses. The roses are packed in special ‘Rose Safari’ boxes and shipped directly to florists across Europe. Rose Safari Video

Introducing: Rose Safari A Premium Rose Selection
All over the world, narratives of Kenya’s majestic wild have been shared. Each tale speaking of her distinctive beauty, her unique culture, her untouched splendor, and sights & sounds presented in diverse shapes and colors.

The Safari country, where the BIG FIVE tear through dense jungle and vast plains. Where all year round nature-fed rivers snake through the floors of the Great Rift Valley with breathtaking landscapes and volcanic mountains forming an exquisite background.

Kenya is also known to be the land of beautiful roses. Rose varieties of diverse colours, shapes and sizes are grown amid this natural beauty.

De Ruiter Creates Genetics for low altitude T-Hybrid Mix
Named Best Stand at the Naivasha Horticultural Fair 2016 With a century of breeding experience globally & over 20 years in Kenya. The company considers rose farming as serious business ‘Every day is Valentine’s Day’ & we stick by our motto ‘Creating Flower Business’. With officesin main flower growing areas. the company is truly a global brand.

The company has recently been striving to increase its market share in the low altitude T-Hybrid varieties and feels it has created enough synergy at this level with +5cm head sizes, +60cm stem lengths (Ensuring auction marketability), excellent vase life performance, good pest & desease resistence & 140 stems p/sqm production figues.

This will provide the market with new lines and an improved quality and saleability of larger headsizes as demanded by most of the retailers and consolidators during the dynamic market changes and new demands.

Flori Briefs

Flower Exporters Test Maritime Cold Chain
“ Though the amount of flowers transported by this method is not yet large enough to be considered a trend, a combined maritime and air transport method known as backhauling has recently begun to expand. “

Dutch flower conglomerate Royal FloraHolland has begun seeking a combined maritime and air cargo alternative to sole air transport, the Journal of Commerce reports.

As maritime cold chains make vast improvements in reefer container and control technology, Royal FloraHolland is exploring the advantage of splitting transport between ships and planes, thereby cutting costs by 38% and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 87%.

Though the amount of flowers transported by this method is not yet large enough to be considered a trend, a combined maritime and air transport method known as backhauling has recently begun to expand. Shipping lines have been investing heavily in their refrigerated cargo capacity, hoping to capture a cold chain market that had long eluded them given the differences in time of transport between ships and airplanes.

Flowers, like fruits, are a perfect example of why this is the case: consumers place a premium on freshness of these items and any time delay, even in temperature controlled rooms, can cost the company. As a result, only 1.6% of the dutch company’s exports cross an ocean (to the U.S.), while the rest are sold in Europe.

Of course, the shipping lines are not expanding their capacity to increase their market share of the flower market — other cold chain goods, like pharmaceuticals, are far less time-sensitive so benefit for the increased scale of transport maritime cargo offers.

Yet, as real-time visibility and temperature controlled capacity increases, flowers and food companies may begin to benefit from increased the scale as well. After all, demand for cold chain products is far more reliable than the demand for a manufactured good.

Kenyan Growers Eager to Grow New Garden Cut Rose
Each variety reacts differently to altitude and this cannot be predicted.
Garden type cut roses and scented cut roses are highly demanded but known for their short vase life. For this reason, breeders are investing time and money in developing this popular variety type with the desired habits. And Rosa Eskelund of Roses Forever is such a breeder. She invested years in breeding a cut rose that does not only look like a garden rose, but also smells like a garden rose and has a long vase life. After ten years of breeding, she succeeded and after nearly 5 years after trialing the variey, now the so-called Rosa Loves Me® series enters the market. And they seem well demanded varieties for mainly Kenyan growers. “We receive many positive reactions and many are eager to plant new beds of these varieties”, says Rosa.

Rosa Loves Me® roses
Rosa Loves Me® is a new rose brand that consists of seven varieties. According to Rosa, all these cut rose varieties have the looks and many the scent of a garden rose and have a very long vase life. “They last for 12 days up to 3 weeks”, she says. “And on top of that, the healthiness of these varieties contributes to the sustainability of their production in for instance Colombia and Kenya”, says Rosa. The names of all varieties start with Rosa Loves Me® and the names of the new varieties are: Sweet, Tender, Two Times, With Heart and Soul, Over the Moon, Purely, and, Just a Little Bit More.

Demand Kenyan growers
Five years ago John Pouw, who is responsible for the marketing within Viking Roses, sent the first budwood to Kenya, only enough to make a few plants per variety. And it has been a slow process. “It took several propagation rounds, and therefore a lot of time, to come to the 50 plants required for a first test”, says Pouw. “Then you need to ‘build up’ the plant to see it for 4 flushes. So. another year gone. Then expand to a full bed. Of course, many varieties are beautiful, fragrant, long life, but do not pass the productivity requirements.” Finding the best altitude for each variety is another challenge. “Take Rosa Loves Me® With Heart and Soul,” Pouw says, “Up to around 1400m and above 2000m the stems will be crooked. In between, they are nice and straight.”

Today, the first reactions have come back from the wholesale and retail customers. According to Pouw, these are positive. “Now the first commercial plantings are on their way to three farms in Kenya and one in Colombia and it is time to reveal the varieties to a larger public at IFTF”, she says. “And it is interesting to see that the same retailers that demanded head sizes of at least 5 cm are now saying that for the Rosa Loves Me® series, averaging at 4.5 cm at 2400m, this is not necessary”, says Pouw. “Emotion cannot be standardized. The auctions have been masters at this, but in the end the consumer decides.

Look at the history of Rote Rose in Japan. Production was terrible, plants ugly, flowers small, but if you saw and see the end product presented to the Japanese buyer, you understand the high prices.” And Pouw predicts a similar future for Rosa Loves Me®, with flowers slowly opening into diameters 12 cm. They will not flood the market with the varieties, the supply will follow the demand. “Cultivation licenses will only be issued to those farms that are complementary in the market.”