Kenya’s flower industry is adopting high-quality standards to grow and consolidate its market share and ward off competition from emerging flower-growing countries in an increasingly competitive global market. The internationally and locally defined quality standards are geared towards creating the Kenyan flower brand.The standards include the Kenya Flower Council Silver standard which all exporters must comply to. The KS1758 standard for flowers and ornamentals is an additional quality control measure, “which means no one should be allowed to mess up the industry.”
The making of the Kenyan Flower brand means growers are now optimizing on available resources to get the best cut flower, and also taking advantage of global events such Valentines days – which accounts for almost 30 percent of all roses sold in a year. Flower farmers are also innovating around the efficient use of water which has saved growers from the biting drought in 2017 with sales estimated to close at over Sh71 billion up from Sh65 billion in 2016.
Kenya’s market share in the EU is expected to rise to 40 percent, consolidating its second position after Netherlands, while at the same time growing its market in the over 45 other countries it exports to. The prospects for 2018 look promising due to favorable weather and emerging new markets such as the Far East, Korea, Australia and Eastern Europe for Kenya’s cut flower product.
With a global market share of 7 percent, Kenya is the fourth largest exporter of cut flowers behind The Netherlands, Colombia and Equador. Africa’s second largest exporter of flowers – Ethiopia with a market share of 2 percent – is steadily expanding acreage under flowers backed by government incentives and low labour costs.
Kenya’s answer to the competition is exploring and promoting new regions with favorable weather to expand flower farms beyond the traditional Naivasha flower farms. The North Rift (region) is coming up strongly and so is Nyahururu and the Mt. Kenya region.
China is an attractive market for Kenyan flower
China has become a new attractive market for Kenyan flower farmers exploiting diversified avenues for retailing their produce. But as many investors continue to take interest in flower farming, exploiting new markets with huge potential for a sustainable supply is becoming an inevitable aspect in the industry. And China has turned out to be a potential destination for high value roses.
‘We are focusing more on Asia and China in particular because the EU market has so many players and the rate of expansion in Kenya is higher than the growth of the EU market,’ said Pigeon Blooms Managing Director Eliud Njenga, whose farm exports roses to China.
‘Penetrating into the Chinese market would neutralize monopolization of prices thus benefiting flower farmers in the country in the long-term,’ Njenga said. Creating an enabling environment for direct flights between the two countries largely boosts exportation of flowers from Kenya to China as Njenga argues.
Significantly, huge population in China and growing demand for quality roses provides Kenya with a viable customer base to capitalize on. ‘The flower industry in Kenya is more than four decades and evolved over the years in the use of modern technology,’ said the Pigeon Blooms Managing Director. Njenga said premiums roses exported to China are grown in high altitude parts of Kenya and whose high quality provides a competitive leverage in the Asian market.
Even as Kenyan flower farmers seek to exploit a growing market in China, they face competition from other countries such as Colombia and Ecuador. However, Njenga is convinced that the Kenyan flowers would be most preferred due to their fair retail price and long shelf life.
To Australia with love:
If you have bought a rose for your loved one in Australia, there is a chance it has travelled a very long way. Figures from the Federal Department of Agriculture show that Australia flower imports from Kenya are significantly. This year It is understood to be a record for the Kenyan rose trade to Australia.
Jasmin McFadden, who runs a flower shop in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, said she was surprised when told the roses she was being sent were from Kenya.”It would appear that local supply cannot keep up with demand, so they’re all imported unfortunately,” she said. “It’s quite amazing. It’s a very long flight, without water too.”
Kenya is one of the world’s biggest exporters of roses, and according to the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), the nation’s floriculture industry earns Kenya billions of US Dollars. Kenya Airways Cargo (KQ Cargo) has also entered into an agreement with QANTAS to export flowers to Australia. Through this agreement, KQ Cargo aims to freight over 30 tonnes of flowers into Australia every month.
This has enabled the success of the new service to uplift flowers via Johannesburg into Sydney and Melbourne and is a major game changer for Kenya in terms of increasing trade exports of flowers to nontraditional markets. This partnership opens up the Australian market for exporters and is a business opportunity to generate revenue.
Australian roses struggling to compete
The increase of flower imports to Australia is putting pressure on local growers according to the Flower Association. Growers said the rise of imports had been exponential and was putting some Australian producers out of business. “A lot of our local growers are pretty disappointed by the ready-availability of imported roses,” he said.
They’ve been coming in for years for Valentine’s Day only, and then over the last five to eight years they’ve really been ramping up almost exponentially year on year. There are a lot of growers who have gone out of business.
“I was speaking to a rose breeder based in Victoria and he was saying at least half of the rose growers on his books have dropped off and not growing any longer. And that’s mainly because they can’t compete against imports on price.”
Mr Holborn said flower imports would no doubt continue and industry was pushing for tighter biosecurity. “Our biggest fear at the moment is what we feel is insufficient biosecurity protocols in place at the border,” he said.
“There’s a number of issues such as insects coming in on certified pathways and also the packaging tends to deteriorate more than it should, which poses a risk at point of entry that boxes are open, collapsed or compromised.”