UK ornamentals market up 4.7%
UK ornamentals were worth £1.2 billion in 2016, an increase of 4.7% compared to 2015, according to the latest horticulture statistics from the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
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The value of ornamental imports was just below £1.2 billion an 11% rise on 2015. The Netherlands accounted for 74% of imports, mainly indoor plants, chrysanthemums and roses. Kenya accounted for 5.8% of imports, mainly cut roses and carnations. Imports of cut flowers showed a 13% increase and bulbs a 6.4% increase
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Tanzania: Horticultural exports generated $642M in 2016
In 2016, Tanzanian horticultural exports were valued at $642 million, up 17.8% compared to the year before ($545 million), thecitizen reported. In parallel, horticulture has contributed to 43% of export earnings, confirming its position as the sub-sector of activity with the fastest growth rate in the agricultural sector. Tanzania’s horticultural output includes fruits (avocado, pineapples, banana and passion fruit), vegetables (carrots, fresh beans, cabbage, cucumber, tomatoes and onions) and cut flowers.
Florensis Kenya achieves 93% energy savings with LED lighting
Philips Lighting has helped Florensis Kenya, a supplier of bedding plants cuttings, realize energy savings of up to 93% in comparison to incandescent lamps. At the same time its second generation Philips Greenpower LED flowering lamps prevent the bedding plants from blooming too early, resulting in plants producing a higher amount of cuttings.
Florensis Kenya replaced its existing 150- Watt incandescent bulbs with 11-Watt GreenPower LED flowering lamps, resulting in energy savings of 93%. This significantly reduced the company’s operational costs as electricity prices in Kenya are high at EUR 0.17 per kW. “This takes our operations to the next level,” said Eddy Verbeek, General Manager at Florensis. “Our customers appreciate the improved quality thanks to the prevention of early flowering and we feel good about further reducing our environmental impact with these energy savings.”
Florensis Kenya is a provider of annual and perennial cuttings, including Pelargoniums, Impatiens and Chrysanthemum. It has worked with Philips Lighting since 2010, when the grower started using a combination of the first generation of Philips GreenPower LED flowering lamps and incandescent lamps. Since then the grower has been working with Philips Lighting and UFO Supplies BV, a Philips Horti LED lighting partner, to explore moving to 100% LED lighting as incandescent lighting consumes high amounts of electricity and is strongly impacted by the frequent fluctuations in the Kenyan power supply, reducing lifespan of the incandescent lamps.
“The advantage of working with Philips Lighting and UFO Supplies is the high level of knowledge and experience they have in defining the right lighting spectrum for different crops. Our entire agronomy department benefited from that,” Verbeek said.
De Ruiter Cocktail Party
Creating flower business’ may be the pay-off of Dutch rose breeding company De Ruiter, but they know for sure it’s not all business what’s round the clock. Two years ago, when the company celebrated its 100th anniversary, they threw a big party and there’s no reason to abandon this tradition. Besides business, fun and networking also plays an important part in this busy trade fair week. To cut a long story short: Yesterday the De Ruiter Cocktail party took place at the historical Aalsmeer auction and we have the photos.
Just like De Ruiter Innovations, the Aalsmeer auction was founded over 100 years ago. With growers, suppliers, traders and buyers and the logistic suppliers, quite a big part of the supply chain was united here. Talk of the day was not only the new marketing concepts De Ruiter introduced this week at the IFTF and the FloraHolland Trade Fair (Big Five and Cuatro x Cuatro), but also the old movies that were played at this special location.
Kenyan Rose to Conquer the Russian Market
The number of Kenyan companies at the exhibition FlowersExpo’2017 in the new season has increased significantly. This is explained by the attractiveness of the Russian flower market and the desire of the participants to communicate directly with their Russian partners and consumers. The import of roses from Kenya to Russia in recent years has significantly outpaced all other countries and has grown by more than 50%. Rose was the second most important source of profit for the Kenyan budget, bringing in from the sale of flowers 400 million euros a year. The companies of Kenya are AAA Growers; Everest Enterprises Limited; Floriken Blooms; Horticultural Crops Directorate; Milele Flowers; Molo Greens; Subati Group; Waridi; ZNS Group - are waiting for all interested in cooperation on September 12-14 at the exhibition FlowersExpo’2017 in IEC “Crocus Expo”, pavilion 1, hall 3.
Boosting the German market through collaboration BGI and Royal FloraHolland
Royal FloraHolland will become a Fördermitglied - literally a supporting member - at the Verband des Deutschen Blumen Gross- und Importhandels (BGI). This membership will enable Royal FloraHolland and its partners to work towards developing and stimulating the German market. Royal FloraHolland announced these plans last weekend at BGI’s Verbandstag in Essen.
The Fördermitglied position means that we will work with our partners to strengthen the German market. This fits seamlessly in with other Royal FloraHolland partnerships around the world to promote the floriculture sector.
Germany is the most important market for Royal FloraHolland’s growers. BGI is a nonprofit organisation and represents the interests of players in floriculture on the German market. Its goal is to enable the floriculture sector to operate optimally in Germany.
Boosting the German market
The German market needs a boost. The share of wallet is decreasing, consumer spending has not risen in years, young consumers are lagging behind and there is also no growth in Royal FloraHolland’s export position there, despite it increasing in other countries. One important direction for BGI is stimulating consumer spending. The general interests that BGI promotes also fits the neutral character of Royal FloraHolland well.
Royal FloraHolland will not put its own efforts into boosting the German market. “We will maintain our position, and that means that in our role as neutral growers and traders on the market, we will provide the best support we can,” explains Lucas Vos, CEO of Royal FloraHolland. “Our joint interest is a healthy German market and we will work with other entities who share this goal.”
Collaboration
Royal FloraHolland has already entered into various partnerships across the world to brainstorm and to work on a wide range of subjects related to our role as marketplace. A few examples are Florint, the ‘International Florist Organisation’ and the ‘Floriculture Sustainability Initiative’ which promotes sustainability in the sector. In the Netherlands, Royal FloraHolland supports the VGB. Through the Fördermitgliedschaft at BGI, Royal FloraHolland will now collaborate to stimulate the market in Germany.
BREXIT: Challenging Perspective for Floriculture
With a market share of around €1 billion and as the second largest import market for floricultural products, the UK is a major destination for flowers & plants suppliers and traders based in the EU, but also in Kenya, Colombia and the rest of the world. The forthcoming exit of the UK from the EU by March 2019 offers challenging perspectives for floriculture businesses and uncertainty remains high as various scenario are being envisaged for the future trade relations between the UK and its current trade partners in the EU and in the rest of the world. Given the importance of the UK market for its international membership, Union Fleurs is active in Brussels and beyond to give visibility to the future implications of Brexit on floriculture businesses and to attract the attention of negotiators and policy-makers on both the EU and UK sides on the particular needs of the global floriculture chain in the context of Brexit.
Most recently, Union Fleurs Secretary General Sylvie Mamias has met with the EU Brexit Task Force in Brussels and with the UK and EU missions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, together with other representatives from the agri-food trade. She has also been kindly invited to take part together with members in various high-level Brexit meetings organised in the Netherlands by the Netherlands British Chamber of Commerce and had for example the privilege to exchange views with Dr Liam Fox, the UK International Trade Secretary, and bring his attention to the floriculture sector. Monitoring, advocacy and lobbying efforts will be continued by Union Fleurs as further developments in the Brexit process will unfold.
Kenyan Flower Exporters Prepare to Seize U.S Market Opportunities
On September 14, the Hub held a Kenya Flower Stakeholders Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss U.S. market opportunities for Kenyan floriculture exporters. A total of 50 floriculture value chain stakeholders attended the meeting. Stakeholder comments from the meeting will inform the ongoing Kenya National AGOA Strategy review and the Kenya Flower Council USA market promotion action plan. The Senior Deputy Permanent Secretary for Kenya’s Department of Trade, Mr. Samson Wangusi, opened the meeting and emphasized Kenyan’s commitment to ensuring full utilization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
“As Kenyans we are grateful to the U.S government for renewing AGOA for another ten years. The extension of the AGOA program until 30th September 2025 provides the business community with an opportunity to plan and execute their export plans properly to increase AGOA utilization and reap maximum benefit by 2025,” said Senior Deputy Permanent Secretary Wangusi pictured above.
The Hub is providing technical support to the Kenyan government to review the Kenya AGOA Strategy and implementation of action plans to maximize utilization of AGOA benefits. The strategy will outline key sectors and product categories for increasing export competitiveness and trade with the U.S. One of the key sectors is certainly floriculture.
In the 2015 - 2016 period, the U.S. was the world’s largest importer of cut flowers and third largest importer of ornamental products, such as live trees and plants, bulbs, roots, cut flowers and ornamental foliage. The U.S.’s top flower import is roses, which happens to be Kenya’s top export. With direct flight to the U.S. from Nairobi about to commence, flower business between the U.S. and Kenya could take off. Kenya’s total exports to the USA were valued at U.S $ 569 million in 2016 down from U.S $594 million in 2015. Increase of flower exports to the U.S may recover what we lost in 2016,” said Senior Deputy Permanent Secretary, Mr. Samson Wangusi.
The Hub is committed to supporting increased flower exports from Kenya to the U.S under AGOA. As part of this support, and following a request from the Kenya Ministry of Trade and the Kenya Flower Council, the Hub retained the services of a flower sector export consultant to conduct workshops and a U.S market analysis that will play a key role to position Kenya’s cut flowers in the U.S market.
It is wonderful to see the interest and enthusiasm displayed by a wide range of players in the cut flowers sector at today’s event. The Hub is committed, with our partner, the Kenya Flower Council, to increasing the export of Kenyan flowers to the US market under AGOA. The sector has been identified as a key one under the National AGOA Utilization Strategy which is ongoing, and direct flights to the US from Nairobi will hopefully make this dream a reality,” said Hub’s Trade Promotion and AGOA Director Finn Holm-Olsen.
Kenya faces two hurdles in quest for direct US flights
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will undergo the final audit by the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at the end of this month to assess safety standards before it is given the last point of departure (LDP) status.
If the audit becomes successful, Kenya Airways will have moved closer to starting direct flights to the US next year, as it will have cleared one of the remaining two hurdles for direct Kenya-America flights.
Under the TSA’s rules, security measures, both overt and covert, have been enhanced for passengers at all last point of departure airports to the United States.
These security measures include, but not limited to enhancing overall passenger screening, conducting heightened screening of personal electronic devices, and increasing security protocols around aircraft and in passenger areas.
