• Weekly Flower Flights from Kilimanjaro Airport in Northern Tanzania

    19Jan
    Categories: News, Tanzania Comments: 0

    During our visit to Arusha last December we also shortly met with George Krukowski, General Manager of TAHA Fresh Handling Ltd. He organises the outgoing logistics for the Tanzanian growers. Obviously, the good news of the weekly flights to Europe has recently been announced to the press:

    Just published today on allafrica.com and East African Business Week:

    The Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA) and its newly formed growers-owned logistics firm, TAHA Fresh Handling Limited (TFHL), have announced the successful inaugural flight of a Boeing 747-200 cargo aircraft from Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).

    In an interview with EABW recently, the Executive Director for TAHA, Jacqueline Mkindi said the flight took off on December 7, 2008 loaded with flowers, cuttings and vegetables from Tanzania to markets in Europe. “This is the first of what will be a weekly service from JRO to Ostend in Belgium operated by MK Airlines. The second flight also took off in the night of Saturday December 13, 2008 uplifting almost 30 tonnes of horticultural produce,” she said. She said the route by MK cargo plane has a viable entry to Amsterdam and other destinations including USA, UK and Asia. “It’s really competitive route, which starts from Belgium to South Africa en-route Entebbe and Kilimanjaro. Ostend in Belgium is a hub whereby cargo is lifted to other destinations,” she said.

  • Why keep records and calculate a cost price?

    16Jan
    Categories: Marketing Comments: 0

    Young, newly started companies usually are production oriented; do have no management information and no or little market information. During the development process of companies into a mature stage, the focus is directed more and more towards the market.
    In the first, production oriented stage, knowing cost prices doesn’t have priority and even is hardly possible. In the market oriented stage of a company, knowing the cost price is a prerequisite to survive! In this stage you need to have records and insight in the performance and results of all departments, insight in the market and its trends, insight in your competitors, etc.

    Calculating and actually knowing your cost price:
    • gives you insight in your (labor) productivity;
    • informs you WHAT to improve in your organisation;
    • will prepare you better in negotiations;
    • gives you better inputs in your strategy decisions;
    • increases your competitiveness (as an individual company and as a group or association);
    • will bring you profit more easily.

  • Uganda: Flower Sector May Wilt As Clients Go Bankrupt

    12Jan
    Categories: News, Uganda Comments: 0

    Just found this article on flowerweb (dated 8 January 2009):

    Ugandan flower export earnings have been sapped by the spills of the global financial crisis which has lead to the cancellation of contracts and prices nose diving.

    Juliet Musoke, the executive director of the Uganda Flower Exporters Association (UFEA) said some European buyers have gone bankrupt due to the crisis. “Some of our buyers have closed down due to insolvency while others have not expressed interest in signing up new contracts. The prices have also dropped to very low levels that some growers find it unnecessary to ship because the prices offered do not even cover freight charges,” Musoke said.

    UFEA had earlier on projected a 1,441 metric tonnes increment for export tonnage and $42m earnings this year. There are 20 flower farms employing over 12,000 people of which 80% are women. The sector last year earned $32m from 6,559 tonnes and contributed $20 to the economy through taxes.

    Musoke said what is more worrying is that all stakeholders are worried because nobody knows what is going to happen and consumers are continuing to tighten their spending on non essentials. The meltdown is among the three major shocks that have gripped the sector that has already been battling high production costs, storms and air freight charges that are eating into their earnings.

  • Fair trade flowers at Valentine Growers in Kenya

    06Jan
    Categories: Kenya, Marketing Comments: 1

    Paul Mwaniki and Milco Rikken at Valentine GrowersSubsequent to the training in Ethiopia, we continued to Kenya and Tanzania to meet and discuss new training activities with the local trade associations (Kenya Flower Council and TAHA). In Kenya, I still had some time to pay a short visit to Valentine Growers, one of the farms that regularly participated in the previous training programmes.

    It was good to see that Valentine Growers is doing well. Direct trade is developing strongly thanks to their attention to sustainable rose production and their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility.

    Valentine Growers Co. Ltd is a flower farm located in Kiambu District approximately 15km from the city of Nairobi, Kenya. The farm started in 1996 and has since expanded to two sites with a total acreage of 27 hectares. The total annual production stands at 55 million stems per year. The main destinations for the roses are Holland, Germany, UK, France, Switzerland and Scandinavian Countries. Other regions include USA, Middle East, & the Far East.

    In the cold store, we used the opportunity to take a few photos with the Fairtrade flowers that were ready to be shipped to the European supermarkets.

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