Category: Past Featured Articles

Royal De Ruiter East Africa Holds Successful Open Days Showcase

Royal De Ruiter East Africa welcomed African rose growers and other players in the floriculture industry to their first open house showcase this year. The two day event held on 9th and 10th March was an opportunity for Royal De Ruiter to showcase their current commercial varieites, new market introductions as well as code varieties. “The open days were timely as we got to share with our partners our strategic plan moving forward especially after receiving our royal designation just before close of 2015,” said Edward Manning, MD Royal De Ruiter East Africa. Notably present during the open days was one of Royal De Ruiter owner directors Henk de Groot who interacted with guests as they shared ideas and exchanged deals.

Rose varieties bred at Royal De Ruiter are sold worldwide, supported by a network of agents and representatives who provide prospective buyers with carefully compiled information based on measurements carried out on our products at our various testing facilities. Royal De Ruiter also has testing facilities in all of its production areas across the globe, an approach that has proved highly beneficial in realising the firm’s envisioned goals in respect of product differentiation.

They say that our crops are exposed to about 240 economically important pests and diseases and Downy mildew happens to be that disease affecting the

Briefly discuss Matt Fryer (Background and Managing Director Arysta LifeScience East Africa)

I was born into a farming community in South Africa, and my love for farming, nature and the outdoors started as far back as I can remember.

After completing my BSC Agric in 2002, I went on to work for a small crop protection company, Gap Chemicals, based in Kwazulu Natal and focused on Sugarcane. The small size of the company resulted in me being exposed to all aspects of running a successful business and this quickly revealed yet another passion I have for customer service.

In 2008 I joined Arysta LifeScience South Africa as a Key Account Manager and in addition to my deliverables I took on active roles in the S&OP process, demand planning and had a short stint of looking after the Southern Africa export business. In 2014 I was appointed Commercial Manager for South Africa, mainly as a support role to the Commercial Director, and was responsible for forecasting, pricing, stock distribution and allocation. In early 2015 I was offered the incredible opportunity to move to Nairobi. Having spent my entire career being based in South Africa, it was an easy decision to make to move here and embark on this new leadership challenge.

We cannot close our eyes to the problems the world faces. At Agrichem Africa Limited® we believe that business must be part of the solution. But to be so, business will have to change. Sustainable, equitable growth is the only acceptable business model.

Agrichem Africa Limited® works to create a better future every day, with brands and services that help people feel good, look good and get more yields out of the harvest. Our first priority is to our consumers – then farmers, employees, suppliers and communities. When we fulfil our responsibilities to them, we believe that our shareholders will be rewarded.

Agrichem Africa Limited® has, from its origins, been a purpose-driven company. Today our purpose is to make sustainable farming a common activity. This means helping to build an industry where everyone lives well and within the natural limits of the planet:

Kenya Flower Council (KFC) is a voluntary association of independent growers and exporters of cutflowers and ornamentals, formed in 1996, with the aim of fostering responsible and safe production of cut flowers in Kenya with due consideration of workers welfare and protection of the environment.

Against this background the KFC has become a common platform for industry representation, promotion and compliance to pertinent local and international standards, deemed necessary to secure markets.

Hydroponics is fancy name for growing plants in soilless media with a nutrient solution. Humans started dabbling in hydroponics as far back as 1670 when it was discovered that plants grew better in ‘dirty’ water than in distilled water. Hydroponics became a great way to identify the essential nutrients for plant growth, and the minimum and maximum levels required. Hydroponics gives complete control on nutrient availability.

In Kenya hydroponics is relatively new, becoming popular in the last 15-20 years. The initial move from soil to hydroponics was prompted by the banning of the soil fumigant, methyl bromide, and a general decline in production over time in plants grown in the same soil. It was soon discovered that managed well, hydroponics could be more productive, with better quality and less disease pressure. Hydroponics is generally restricted to high value crops, like roses, but more and more we are seeing tomatoes, capsicum, herbs, leafy vegetables and summer flowers in hydroponics.

Has to Market Your Business

I FTEX has traditionally been a very popular exhibition to market your products, services and business. With advances in social media marketing and Internet technology, like webinars, Google hangouts and video conferencing, the value and benefits of marketing via trade fair comes up. Though technology is changing marketing at a rapid pace, there are several benefits from having exhibit presence at a trade show. These six key benefits are why your business must have IFTEX Exhibition marketing presence:

1.IFTEX Creates Lasting Impressions If Done Right

The main purpose of IFTEX is to showcase a wide variety of options for attendees and business to engage and interact with each other. With a well-designed trade show booth that draws attendees’ attention, a few promotional items, a contest opportunity with giveaways and sales collateral, you will have a wellrounded booth experience that leaves an impression with a prospective customer for months. Consider having attendees enter a drawing by submitting a business card or completing an action on social media. These types of promotions serve dual purposes: increasing engagement and capturing potential contact information as well.

Dümmen Orange Startng Off 2016 On the Road

Dümmen Orange is on the road again. The breeder had introduced the flower-trials-on-wheels concept in January 2015. A truck was completely restyled into a trial on wheels and visited its trade partners at the various FloraHolland auctions in The Netherlands. Exactly one year later, the cut chrysanthemums are back at their familiar spot in the truck.

Royal De Ruiter East Africa, Closing the Year on a High Note

An atmosphere of enthusiasm greets us when we arrive at the Royal De Ruiter East Africa farm in Naivasha Kenya. Our visit comes when Royal De Ruiter is just fresh from the unveiling of their new corporate identity. At a ceremony held during this year’s IFTF show in the Netherlands, the company represented by its directors Henk de Groot and Oscar Peters was presented with Royal designation by Mayor Drs. MM van ‘t Veld. The ceremony also marked Royal De Ruiter’s 100 years since establishment.

What would you attribute your success to considering you indicated the inaugural show exceeded expectations?

The fact that Kenya is one of the countries in the world where the production area of flowers structurally increases is a strong indicator that the sector -overall- is in a good shape. Moreover, growth in a worldwide economical turmoil shows that the sector has to row against the stream and still moves forward. This cannot mean anything different than strength for even more growth when coming into calm waters. Therefore IFTEX is an excellent instrument for the Kenyan floriculture Industry to support and accelerate this growth.

What has been your most ‘unexpected’ occurrence at the show?

I was 100% confident that this trade fair could not fail and would be a “full house”. The only big unknown factor was how to convince the Kenyan growers that this would work if they just would believe in it. Never before in my career of organising flower trade expos anywhere else in the world, I had so many excellent building parts in my hand to create the almost ‘perfect’ flower trade exhibition, I am even tempted to call it. Being a flower trade expo specialist, I got very excited the moment I added it all up and suddenly visualized the ideal place for an African flower trade expo could, would and should be Kenya and Kenya only. I then decided to hold as many meetings with the growers as needed until they would be convinced to give it a try and take a booth. It was somehow still unexpected though when I finally I managed to get enough on board. The rest as they say is history. Growers from the region have also joined the show.