Oudendijk Import and OZ Import (a division of the Dutch Flower Group), two leading importers of cut flowers today announced their plans to merge as of January 1st, 2013.
Read More »Oudendijk Import and OZ Import set to merge
The US government has lifted the restriction on imports from Costa Rica of dracaenas with foliage larger than 18 inches (46 cm). Costa Rica is the only country that can export ornamental plants larger than 18 inches to the US.
Read More »Large ornamental plants from Costa Rica allowed to enter the US market
In the past months, ProVerde provided marketing assistance to the Palestinian Cash Crops Project. The current Gaza cash crop export sector was evaluated, including shipping, exporting, sales and marketing channels.
Against the background of rapidly changing market conditions and a challenging political situation, plans were drawn for the future path of the cash crop sector and the role of PARC and the cooperatives in its development.Read More »Marketing support to Palestinian Cash Crops Project
The interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) concluded by the EU and four Eastern and Southern African states (Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe) took effect on May 14, providing duty and quota free access to the EU market for these countries as well as opening their markets to European exports over the course of the next 15 years.
Furthermore, the Agreement covers provisions on rules of origin, development cooperation, fisheries, trade defence and dispute settlement. This EPA is a substantial improvement for Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zimbabwe on the unilateral trade agreements they enjoyed so far because it encourages regional integration and strengthens a partnership approach with the EU, which in turn brings economic and political benefits that individual countries cannot achieve alone.
Read More »EU’s first Economic Partnership Agreement with an African region goes live
On behalf of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I), a study is carried out to obtain detailed insight into the performance of the Kenyan-Dutch horticultural supply chain.
The Dutch government-funded study exposes a host of minor and major bottlenecks and inefficiencies – and kick-starts sector-wide involvement in setting new industry standards for quality, cost efficiency and sustainability.
Read More »Study on the Kenyan-Dutch Horticultural Supply Chain
The Kenya floriculture sub-sector recorded significant improvement in 2011 where 122 thousand metric tons valued at Kshs 44.5 billion were exported according to the USAID Kenya Horticulture competitiveness project (KHCP) statistics. This translated into a growth of 1% in volume and 25% in value compared to 2010.
Read More »Floriculture in Kenya records significant growth in 2011
The World Bank, in cooperation with the Kenya Flower Council (KFC), organised a series of video conference-based seminars on topics pertaining to competitiveness in the floriculture industry. The 5th seminar, held on the 29th of November 2011, covered the issue of global competitiveness of floriculture production in the East Africa Region. Representatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda participated in the videoconference.
ProVerde was asked to prepare an issue paper on the competitiveness of the Kenyan flower industry and by extension the East African producer’s compared to other global producers and exporters. The paper provided an important contextual and experiential learning point for the other countries involved in the videoconference. Results from the study were presented and discussed during the conference.Read More »Fifth Video Conference on the Global Competitiveness of the Flower Industry in Eastern Africa
The Flower Label Program (FLP) certification scheme has been successfully benchmarked with the Fair Flowers Fair Plants (FFP) standard. With immediate effect, all FLP-certified producers can now market their produce also under the FFP-consumer label. The FLP producers can extend the FFP assortment at short notice. Due to the recent increase of FFP points of sale in Europe, these flowers will be more than welcome. At the same time, FLP is the first consumer label which enables it’s growers to market as well under FFP.
Read More »Succesful benchmarking of flower standards
This year, FloraHolland flower auction celebrates its having been existence for a hundred years. With the motto of 100 Years’ Color, the jubilee will be marked this autumn at FloraHolland’s marketplaces in Aalsmeer, Bleiswijk, Eelde, Naaldwijk and Rijnsburg. A century ago, growers agreed on the organization of the first local-scale flower auction, over a game of billiards in a pub.
A hundred years on, FloraHolland is a still-growing, internationally-active auction company: each day, the cooperative sees 8,000 Dutch and foreign growers delivering their flowers and plants; 2,500 professional customers (including many exporters and wholesalers) doing their purchasing; and a staff of well over 4,000 come to work. The auction has a turnover of 4.1 billion euros and sells more than 12 billion flowers and plants a year, making it a significant contributor to the Dutch economy.Read More »Dutch flower auctions celebrate centenary
Traditionally, most flowers heading for European markets enter the European Union via Amsterdam airport, located near the Dutch auctions. From mid-2009, however, many Dutch importers… Read More »Entry point Belgium for African flowers