Kenya flower growers step up branding

Of the 200 flower growers in the country, the campaign to brand their flowers and market them directly in the oversees market comes as a tall order as only three of them – Oserian Development Company, Finlay’s and Homegrown (K) ltd have the capacity to rollout the export infrastructure.

The three large farms collectively account for about 40 per cent of Kenyan flower export.

A recent report conducted by the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute on Value chain indicates that farms spent 8 per cent of their costs in auctions fees, nearly the same as the 10 per cent spent on labour.

On the other hand, direct sales mean the firms spend 34 per cent of their operation costs to cover airfreight and clearing closes and another 2.8 per cent in packaging expenses.

“Going forward, we foresee a lot of mergers and automation in future to reduce the cost of doing business within the industry,” Mr Oswald Magwenzi, investment officer at the international Finance Corporation (IFC) told floriculture industry forum held in Nairobi last week