Water cigar flowers, papyrus and other export market tricks

After 12 years of working on a flower farm, Joseph Obango decided to set up his own farm. He did not go the roses route, the common cut flower exported to Europe. He grew papyrus and water cigars. Now the exporter who runs Broban Export and Import Agencies says the rare flowers are fetching good returns.

“Most people use them for decoration. In a week, I export about 20,000 stems of water cigars,” he said during the Kenya Flower Industry Expo at the Oshwal Centre in Nairobi a fortnight ago.

He grows them on 52 acres.

“The prices are good. In a month, you can make up to Sh6 million if you have made some good exports. I currently have 45 employees,” he said.

Beatrice Kwoma of Sojanmi Springfields which sells under the brand name Amor Special Roses and Omang was also among the exhibitors. Their flower farm, together with three others grows roses on 113 hectares of land. With so many rose farmers in the market, Ms Kwoma said the trick is to plant unique varieties.

The trick

“When you are playing it alone, you have a market. Also, ensure that you have quality flowers, a nice stem, and good foliage,” she advised, adding that they are looking to grow chrysanthemums.

The farms export the flowers to South Africa, Japan, Europe and the Middle East.

“Middle East is the upcoming market as they are buying many flowers,” she said, adding “the expo allows us to diversify our clientele and export to more countries.”

The farms mostly grow standard roses, regular spray roses, and garden spray roses.

“Regular spray roses are mainly grown for the Middle East market while garden spray roses are exported to Europe, particularly, Russia. The garden spray roses are more expensive and can go for 1.3 euros (Sh196) per stem at the flower auction while regular roses are 0.3 euros (Sh45). The garden spray roses are suitable for bouquets,” she said.

How can home gardeners grow parent their roses to attain export qualities?

Ms Kwoma says, “What you need to make sure is that the first planting is done well, the heads are big, and the stems should be nice and strong. Over a long time, the quality can start deteriorating requiring that you replant. To ensure that the roses do not get diseases, you weed them daily. You can grow the roses in soil or in roughs called hydroponics.”

“If you grow in troughs you will not need to do the weeding. The rose should also be bent to get more flowers. We have a propagation session, where once we get the rose cutting, we propagate them until they have roots then they can be transferred to the greenhouse,” she added.

Ms Kwoma's farm, all the flowers are grown for export and they harvest them in the morning or the evening while in the cut stage, when the flower is not very open. Once harvested, the roses are put in the post-harvest solution, which is a mixture of chemicals to ensure that they do not dehydrate.

Afterwards, they are taken to the receiving bay where there is a quality checker who ensures that there are no diseases or pests. Once approved by the quality checker, the flowers are put in the first cold room for eight hours to allow them to take in enough water.

“After the 8 hours, the roses are taken to the grading hall where the flowers are put according to the specifications of the client or customers. There are also flowers we send to the Dutch Flower Auction. At the grading hall, we use a special paper to wrap the heads of the roses to protect them from getting any damage.”

The flowers are packed in different boxes that are labelled according to their destinations, the length of the stems and the type of roses.

“Once the flowers are packed and labelled we put them in the final cold room for around 8 hours awaiting transportation to the airport at 3am,” Ms Kwoma told the BDLife.

Export volumes

In a week, she said they sell around two million stems depending on the market.

“During the high season, we can sell 2.5 million stems in a week, and during the low season we can sell 800,000 stems. Our production is around 1.6 million stems per day. When there is no market, we just shred the flowers, allow them to rot, and use them as fertiliser,” she said.

Their biggest challenge is the high costs of inputs, fertilisers and chemicals. The freight rates are also very high.

“Earlier on, it cost 1.8 euros (Sh271) to transport 1kg of flowers but in 2022, the prices went up to 3 euros (Sh452) per kg which eats into our profits. This year, the price has been reduced to 2.7 euros (Sh406) per kg but that does not make things any easier,” she said.

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