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Kenya’s European Union (EU) market share is about 38%

Kenya’s flower industry is the oldest and largest in Africa contributing 1.29% of the national GDP. The sector has continued to record growth in volume and value of cut flowers exported every year. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in 2013, the floriculture industry exported 124, 858 tons valued at Kshs 46.3 billion. It is estimated that over 500,000 people, including over 90,000 flower farm employees depend on the floriculture industry.

The main production areas are around Lake Naivasha, Mt. Kenya, Nairobi, Thika, Kiambu, Athi River, Kitale, Nakuru, Kericho, Nyandarua, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gichu, Kajiado and Eastern Kenya.

Kenya is the lead exporter of rose cut flowers to the European Union (EU) with a market share of about 38%. In the United Kingdom, supermarkets are the main retail outlets. Other growing destinations include Japan, Russia and USA.

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Going by the investment trends of the last couple of years, one is left to ask this simple question. Is Kenya shifting to the auction like markets while moving away from the auctions?

The trend of investment in flower for both new investments and extension of existing farms has been 80% uplands and 20% lowlands. This means the target production is long stems and big head varieties. However, the market is slowly shifting from auction to the more lucrative (relative) wholesale. Statistics available show less than five farms are purely auction growing with most of the remaining farms doing 65% direct and 35% auction. So, which way Kenyan flowers?

Most of the growers have shifted to the wholesale markets, and some of them are doing retail markets for some customers who need the long stem big head varieties. In this trend, one is left asking himself, why are we shifting to these varieties? Is it because our traditional short stem and small head market is dwindling? Or is it because the other market is bigger and has less competition? The answer will be Yes and No. Why? We all need to agree that Ecuador has slowly encroached to our traditional markets and looking at their quality, the competition maybe stiffer.

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A marketing guy in a flower farm asked me the other day what the greatest marketing challenges facing flower business today were and whether I think these challenges are different than they have been historically. That’s a great question and I’ve pondered it for a while.

Ultimately, what I decided is that I really don’t think the challenges themselves are any different today than they have been historically and I think the same basic marketing principles apply today that have always applied.

So, what are the greatest marketing challenges facing flower business today and why are they really the same as they ever were? In my opinion, at a high level, the challenges are:

  1. Identifying the most viable target markets.
  2. Effectively positioning what you have to offer against the competition.
  3. Selecting the right communication channels to appeal to your identified market
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Over 95% of the exported cut flowers are transported by air which makes securing air cargo space a priority. To cushion this, large exporters have been able to exercise some control over space through joint ventures with freight forwarders.

The freight forwarders inspect and document flower and temperature conditions, palletize packed flowers, store them in cold storage facilities at the airport, clear them through export customs, obtain phytosanitary certification, and load the cargo onto commercial or charter flights. Some forwarders also offer cooled transport for growers.

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About two million Kenyans are food insecure. In Nairobi, up to 20 per cent of the population is ultra hungry, researchers tell us. Farmers responsible for feeding the country are still struggling with access to seeds, government subsidized agro inputs, diseases and pests and emerging threats like climate change.

Ironically Kenya is endowed with large swathes of green fertile land, favourable climate and a highly entrepreneurial population with institutions like the Food and Agricultural Organisation classifying the country’s land as so verdant, so lush and so capable of generating food that it could, alone, be the agricultural supply station for most of Africa. The World Bank on the other hand through numerous studies shows Kenyan farmers among the most important in developing countries capable of creating a trillion-dollar food market by 2030 if they expanded their access to more capital, better technology, irrigated land and grow high-value nutritious foods.

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Thrips, order Thysanoptera, are tiny, slender insects with fringed wings. They feed by puncturing the epidermal (outer) layer of host tissue and sucking out the cell contents, which results in stippling, discolored flecking, or silvering of the leaf surface. Thrips feeding is usually accompanied by black varnishlike flecks of frass (excrement).

Pest species are plant feeders that discolor and scar leaf, flower, and fruit surfaces, and distort plant parts or vector plant pathogens. Many species of thrips feed on fungal spores and pollen and are often innocuous. However, pollen feeding on plants such as orchids and African violets can leave unsightly pollen deposits and may reduce flower longevity. Certain thrips are beneficial predators that feed on other insects and mites.

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The crop protection industry is dominated by the large multinational agro-chemical companies such as Syngenta, Monsanto and Bayer Cropscience. The biocontrol business is minute in comparison, with only 3% of global sales of crop protection products. The future of the biocontrol industry is based on a range of interacting factors and difficult to predict the future, however many are suggesting that its future is likely to grow. There are numerous drivers for the use of biological control.

Pesticide resistance.
Whether a pest or a disease, most organisms have the ability to become resistant to a large range of pesticides. This is often seen in the field where one season a particular pesticide works well and later the efficacy is not there. Resistance has been reported in many common groups of insecticides and fungicides.

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Briefly discuss Barnaba Rotich (Background-Personal and a professional)
My love for farming started way back when I was a little kid. I was raised in a farm and as I was growing up I enjoyed playing with farm machineries and had fun during agricultural classes throughout primary and secondary school. So I was delighted when I got admitted to JKUAT to pursue a Bsc. Degree in Horticulture.

In December 2001 I did my last exam on a Friday and started work with Dudutech the following Monday and within one year I got promoted from Field Trials Officer to a Production Manager in charge of one line of insects and thereafter to the position of Production Coordinator in charge of all insect production lines. By March 2005, I was seconded to Dudutech’s sister company in South Africa to set up one of the biggest IPM projects in the Southern Africa at the time. I came back to Kenya after one year stint and took a new role as Technical Manager again in insect production and got promoted to Commercial &Technical Sales Manager a position I have been for 5 years.

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