Flower farms tackle latest threat to peak season exports

Of the basic requirements in the flower business, vase-life is the most critical besides smell and colour.

The “enhanced product life training” is part of the value chain strengthening aimed at safeguarding the Sh70 billion a year industry that suffered a major hit during last year’s global economic recession.

The audit is also reaction to the global financial crisis that has pushed the flower business further up the ranks of luxurious products.

Those still making purchases are revising their expectations.

Under the vase-life guarantee rules, the grower is responsible for 70 per cent of the product while the seller and the buyer take the rest.

That means that the grower must have an interest in how the importer and the consumer handles the product to avoid losses.

Flower sales are expected to rise beginning next week as the world marks Valentine’s Day on February 14 and remain robust in the next four months.

Training critical

Ms Ngige said the training is critical to the growth of a local flower market, after an unimpressive performance in 2009 linked to depressed global sales.

She is cautiously optimistic that unlike in 2009 when the global financial crisis and a biting winter conspired to leave flower traders with the worst Valentine Day, the market will be brighter this year.

“It is too early to estimate sales but orders are looking up as people “prepare to brighten up their lives after a dull 2009”.

Last year, Kenya’s foreign exchange earnings from flower sales declined by 30 per cent to stand at Sh30 billion compared with Sh43 billion in 2008.

The sector has however, bounced back in the last three months, supported by an increase in export value of cut flowers, fruits and vegetables in key European market.

In October, for instance, some 14,742 tonnes of flowers worth Sh4 billion were sold – representing a growth of between 16.5 per cent and 6.9 per cent.

Kenya also opened a lab and distribution centre in Nairobi in December last year find new ways of extending product life.