Believe it or not, but it is estimated that European consumers spend a staggering 15 billion euro on cut flowers and flower arrangements per year. This market does not only consist of cut flowers, but includes a wide range of product groups like foliage, dried branches and even dried fruits and vegetables. Colourful dried corn stalks (maize), for instance, have been a big hit as a component in bouquets and flower arrangements.
It is a well-developed and highly competitive market which approaches saturation in some countries. As a result, traders are continuously seeking new, special and different products to distinguish themselves. Consumers want to be surprised: see something new and unexpected in the shops. It is obvious that this huge market offers varying opportunities for companies in developing countries as potential suppliers of natural products with ornamental features.
In view of this opportunity, ProVerde is looking for ways to match demand and potential suppliers. ProVerde is an internationally oriented company providing trade facilitation and trade mediation services to primarily companies in developing countries. We are based in The Netherlands, the centre of international floricultural trade, and specialised in marketing cut flowers & plants, florist items, and biodiversity products. Read more »
As the climate in the EU is not suitable for the production of tropical fruit, the EU relies on imports of tropical fruits such as bananas –the most popular fruit in Europe–, pineapples, kiwifruit, avocados and mangos.
Temperate and sub-tropical species such as citrus fruit, grapes and pears are imported as well, but mainly in out of the European growing season. Countries in the southern hemisphere are able to supply when the countries in the northern hemisphere can not. This is also known as counter-season supply. For fruit products that can be stored, such as apples, the counter season is less evident. With the continual improvements in storage life and storage conditions of fruit products, the off-season is shortened. Read more »
Following the success of the previous training activities and upon request of the Ethiopian flower sector, CBI organised four Master Classes as a key activity of CBI’s 2009 floricultural training programme in Ethiopia. The programme was developed in close cooperation with EHPEA and focused on different aspects of flower export marketing.
In the course of the Master Class training series, participants wrote a concise export marketing plan. The structure of the export marketing plan was used as the framework for the special topics covered in the training programme: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), post-harvest and logistical requirements, market research in the flower business, getting the best price on the auction, and internal and external communication and client orientation. Read more »
Date: Friday, April 2, 2010
Categories: Market research, Requirements
In The Netherlands, growing numbers of commercial companies are choosing remote buying to purchase their products on the auction. As with image auctioning, where the product is not physically present at the auction clocks, with remote buying (KOA), auction buyers need not be sitting in the stands.
Often, the wholesale companies have established a special dealing room on their company premises for this purpose. In the comfort of their own offices, anywhere in the world, they can buy online on all the FloraHolland auction clocks. Growers, who supply the products, can see in real-time on the Internet how the buying process is going. Read more »
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Categories: Market research, ProVerde projects
In Europe, bromeliads have been cultivated and traded already for a long time. The largest bromeliad nurseries in the world producing cuttings and finished pot plants are located in The Netherlands. Currently, about 30 Dutch companies produce bromeliads. Guzmania is by far the biggest bromeliad traded at the Dutch auctions. Other important bromeliads are Vriesea, Tillandsia and Aechmea.
At young plant level, the bromeliad market is extremely competitive and is dominated by small number of relatively big breeding companies (Corn. Bak, Deroose Plants, Exoticplant) who compete for market share with a steady stream of new patented varieties. These breeders (or so-called improvers or hybridisers) are working constantly to produce ever more spectacular and hardy varieties for the market. The search for finding new varieties is fuelled by one thing: new stock. Read more »
Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010
Categories: Guatemala, ProVerde projects, Training
Below you find a selection of photos of the Workshop External and Internal Customer Orientation for Guatemalan growers of flowers, foliage, plants and young plants. The two-day workshop was held on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 February 2010.
The CBI training activity was organised together with Agexport, the Guatemalan Exporters Association.
Read more »
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Categories: Guatemala, News, ProVerde projects
A two-day training programme for flower growers in Guatemala on ‘External and internal customer orientation’ is scheduled for early February. The training programme is an initiative of CBI and Agexport and will be carried out by Milco Rikken of ProVerde and Maarten van Schie of OTV Wageningen.
The objective of the training is to improve the knowledge and skills of the participants in understanding customer requirements as well as the European market channels and requirements. After the training, participants are informed about present market conditions and developments. They are able to translate and implement market information, client expectations and feedback to the different levels in the farms. This is done in relation to the export of flowers, foliage and plant (materials) to the EU. Read more »
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Categories: Market research, ProVerde projects
A recently published CBI market survey for summer flowers, which was compiled by ProVerde, shows that turnover in summer flowers has increased steadily over the past couple of years. An important contributing factors has been steadily increasing supermarket sales and the resulting increased demand for bouquet fillers. The recent global economic crisis, however, has also affected the European summer flower trade. Read more »
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Categories: Market research, ProVerde projects
This week, CBI published its latest market survey for tropical flowers, which was compiled by ProVerde. The survey shows that a number of developing countries holds a strong position in supplying tropical flowers to the European market. The European market is characterised by very strict quality requirements and a high level of interest in innovation and new species; experience has shown that new products can acquire a rapidly growing market share, following initial introduction to the trade. Read more »
CBI’s Export Development Programmes (EDP) for cut flowers are designed to help entrepreneurs in selected African countries to adapt to EU market requirements in order to create conditions for market entry or market consolidation. ProVerde has been involved in many parts of the programme.
Each country programme combined different elements: technical assistance, training in export marketing and management and market entry assistance. In Egypt for example, the programme mainly focused on logistic cooperation and certification. In Kenya, CBI was of the opinion that there is enough knowledge available in the country itself to help to companies to develop their product quality, so instead the programme focused on developing export marketing (including a market tour to the Netherlands), HRM skills of the middle managers, and cooperation between the farms. In Uganda, improvement of product quality and farm management were the main issues, next to marketing training. Read more »
