The mango is slowly conquering European markets. Although it still only holds a small share of the total fresh fruit market, demand for this juicy tropical fruit is growing in almost every EU country.
CBI just published an interesting video about the mango value chain illustrating their efforts to assist the Mali sector to step up to European markets standards. The video can be viewed at: mango value chain video Read more »
Kenyan flower exports may drop 14 percent to 80,000 tonnes this year due to drought and a depressed world market, the chief executive of the Kenya Flower Council said. Read more »
SA’s flower exporters were continuing to battle weak markets with no signs of demand picking up yet in Europe, their biggest market, or an easing of cost pressures, René Schoenmaker of the South African Flower Exports Council said on Friday. Read more »
On Monday 12 October, the Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn introduced mixed long roses under their AH Pure & Honest brand (AH Puur & Eerlijk). During a short ceremony in Zaandam, Mrs. R.C. Rono, Ambassador of Kenya, presented the first bunch to Mr. Albert Voogd, Director of Commerce of Albert Heijn. During the next two weeks, all Albert Heijn supermarkets will focus on the Pure & Honest theme. This new brand of Albert Heijn makes it easy for customers to choose responsible and sustainable products. Read more »
The European Union has laid down specific minimum quality requirements that propagating material traded within the EU has to comply with. Read more »
The lion’s share of cut flower imported from developing countries into the European Union is free from tariffs or enjoys a preferential tariff. Exporters can check which tariff applies to their products at exporthelp.europa.eu. Go to ‘Import tariffs’, enter the product code corresponding to your product, select your country and click on ‘view’. Read more »
Taxing at a high rate can have substantial consequences for consumer demand for cut flowers. Fiscal borders between EU countries were, in theory, eliminated from 1 January 1993 onwards. However, in practice, harmonisation of VAT (tax levied at consumer sales’ level) rates has not yet been achieved. Read more »
Floriculture exports from India are expected to see a 20 per cent decline this year “as buyers are holding on to their purse strings due to the slowdown,” S Jafar Naqvi, president of the Indian Flowers and Ornamental Plants Welfare Association (iFlora), has said. Read more »
With a view to reduce impact of packaging on the environment, the EU has laid down legislation that establishes measures concerning the management of packaging and packaging waste. These measures aim at preventing the production of packaging waste, and in addition at reusing packaging, at recycling and other forms of recovering packaging waste and as such to reduce the final disposal of such waste. Although the Directive does not address producers and exporters from developing countries directly, set maximum concentration levels for heavy metals contained in packaging and labelling requirements do apply to all packaging placed on the EU market. Exporters from developing countries have to make sure to comply with the requirements on heavy metal and labelling in order to enter the EU market. Read more »
The trade companies of the Dutch Flower Group (DFG) have nominated ten growers for the Dutch Flower Award 2009, amongst which an Ethiopian lily and Costa Rican foliage farm. The award will be handed out on Thursday, October 15th during the FloraHolland Trade Fair in Aalsmeer (formerly known as the Aalsmeer Market). Read more »