Category: Past Featured Articles

Family, staff, friends and relatives gathered at the Oserian Stadium in Naivasha on December 20, 2016 to celebrate the life of the pioneer of the Kenya flower industry Johannes Ewaldus Maria Zwager popularly known as Hans Zwager who has passed on at the age of 90. Hans Zwager founded leading flower export farm, Oserian Development Company in the early 80s marking the beginning of a business which would drive an industry to grow into one of the top export earners for Kenya – a key employer and driver of a major socialeconomic transformation in the region. An estimated two million people depend on the flower industry today through direct and indirect employment at both the farm and across the value chain.

To celebrate the legacy left behind by Hans Zwager, an afternoon and evening of entertainment was organized by the Oserian family to give their hero a befitting send off, said Kirimi Mpungu, the firm’s director of administration.

REGIONAL BRIEFS
No Cause of Alarm

By the way, things have calmed down in Uganda. Things are now handled in the Netherlands; the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation has requested the Embassy in Uganda to investigate the recent events.

Royal van Zanten employees entered a greenhouse that had just been disinfected and a week later, other employees entered a different Royal van Zanten greenhouse and came into contact with the remains of two eco-friendly products and a chemical agent.

Smit has been very disappointed about the way the two incidents were handled by all sorts of organisations and the media. The incidents got totally blown out of proportion – the Ugandan floricultural industry was accused of sexual harassment and slavery. Smit spoke with the union last week. “I asked them whether, during the 22 years that we have been here, there had ever been any reports of sexual harassment at our farms. And whether they had ever heard of us missing a single month’s payment. The union could only negate these things.”

The Netherlands are the Partner Country and the Innovation Showcase is Celebrating an Anniversar

From January 24 to 27, 2017, the international green sector will be guests at Messe Essen. IPM ESSEN will portray the entire value added chain of plant production: Around 1,600 exhibitors from 50 countries will show their innovations in the Plants, Technology, Floristry and Garden Features areas. The signs are on course for success: All the market leaders have confirmed their participations. In particular, the official national booths are registering growth. The Innovation Showcase will celebrate its tenth anniversary and will be one of the highlights of the extensive supporting programme. Furthermore, the 35th world’s leading fair for horticulture will have a partner country: the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

IPM ESSEN is well-known for its high internationality on both the exhibitor and visitor sides. In 2017, the international joint booths will be supplemented by another country, i.e. Japan. Bonsai will be on display. Belgium will occupy three exhibition areas for the first time. India has booked additional area. Other national participations will come from China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Hungary and the USA.

Before and during the fair, the trade visitors will be able to rely on a tested infrastructure and profit from new features on the occasion

Introduction Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that affects a wide range of plants. Powdery mildew diseases are caused by many different species of fungi

2016 has been a very tough year for Esmeralda Farms. Last June, Peter Ullrich, founder and driving force behind one of the largest floricultural companies in the world, passed away. In August, their farm in Ethiopia was attacked by rebels. Present owner Clarisse Ullrich decided subsequently that Esmeralda would cease their activities in Africa. And the office in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, was shut down as well. In the beginning of December, Clarisse Ullrich tells her story.

“For many years, Clarisse Ullrich supported her husband Peter Ullrich with his business and since he passed away, she’s taken over the leadership of what might be the largest flower company in the world: Esmeralda Farms. She had only assumed her new position for two months, when Esmeralda’s farm in Ethiopia was raided by rebels. Following the events, Clarisse Ullrich was faced with having to make hard decisions.

This meant that Esmeralda’s African adventure, which had started a year and a half earlier, was over. They had initially started supplying their European customers (through Esmeralda’s Dutch branch in Aalsmeer) gypsophila and spray roses from Ethiopia, because it was cheaper than from Latin America. But this strategy was suddenly abandoned last September after several Ethiopian flower companies, including Esmeralda, had become a target of tribal fights, despite the fact that Ethiopia had been such a stable place for floricultural companies before.

The Kenyan flower industry has been spared decline thanks to a permanent Market Access Regulation between the EU and Kenya. Union Fleurs and the Kenya Flower Council’s great efforts have contributed to the import duty exemption currently in place for Kenyan flowers exported to the European Union since 1 October 2016.

For a long time, the future was looking very bleak for the Kenyan flower industry. Kenya desperately needed the East African Community (EAC) to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) before the 1st of October. Without this EPA, the country was the only one of the five EAC countries that was going to have to pay European import duties on flowers and other products.

The other four countries – Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – were already exempt from European import duties as they were categorised as ‘least developed countries’. But Kenya wasn’t. Because the five countries had agreed during the EPA negotiations (in 2008), that an EPA agreement could only be reached if all five countries signed and ratified the EPA, Kenya was getting very anxious when the deadline of 1 October 2016 was starting to get closer. In September, only two countries had signed: Kenya and Rwanda.

By Jose Chen Lopez Plants require light for optimum growth and development, but the three different aspects of light, quantity, quality and duration, also have

Horticultural Trade Follows the Overall Political Situation

Horticulture is showing that it is largely stable and optimistic in spite of the many economic and political uncertainties on the markets. Notwithstanding Brexit, the embargo on Russia and terrorism, the flower and plant worlds are continuing to revolve even if not always in the traditional orbits.

The characteristics of the last few years in the global trade continue to exist. The worldwide demand for flowers and plants is concentrated in the European countries, China, Japan and the USA. The Netherlands remain the undisputed number one as the hub for the trade inside the EU. They are responsible for almost 70 % of the export activities of flowers and plants inside the EU. As indicated by the latest figures from EUROSTAT, the trend towards rising imports of flowers and plants into the EU is persisting as far as both the quantity and the value are concerned.

In 2015, a total of 504,952 tonnes (+ 8.2 %) worth Euro 1.68 billion (+ 5.3 %) was imported by the EU. As in the previous years, the cut flowers which account for 78 % of the total imports into the EU are mainly responsible for the rise in the imports. At 5.3 %, their growth in terms of value exactly corresponds to the total growth. The increases in the imports may be attributed almost exclusively to the cut flowers; cut flowers are the sole driving forces behind the growth in the EU’s foreign trade.

Kenya will continue enjoying duty-free and quota-free access for its goods to the European Union (EU) even if neighbouring countries fail to approve the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Josiah Rotich, the chief trade development officer at the Trade ministry, said that Kenya will, however, not enjoy other benefits that come with the EPA until all East African Community (EAC) partners ratify the deal.

Among the benefits that will remain pending is the rules of origin, a provision that allows Kenyan exporters to enjoy dutyfree access to the European market despite their goods being made using raw materials sourced from other countries.

“On the basis of Kenya ratifying the agreement, the country will continue benefiting from the duty-free, quota-free access for as long as we are still trying to sort ourselves out at the EAC level,” Mr Rotich said during a roundtable meeting organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).