We’d like to increase our sales at the auction
Could you tell us a little about Kimman Roses?
“Until two years ago, my brother and I had a flower trading company. After that, we started growing flowers in Nakuru, mostly gypsophila. I am the sole owner, but my brother helps me out. When I’m away, at the IFTF in Vijfhuizen in the Netherlands for example, he runs the farm in Kenya. We’ve expanded to 12 ha over a short period of time. Our varieties include Pearl Blossom and Xlence. We used to grow My Pink, until 1.5 years ago. Prices were good for this niche product, but we decided to grow more Xlence.”
You dye gypsophila as well, is that another niche?
“Yes, we also dye gypsophila by spraying the flowers with a colouring or by adding colouring to the water, so that the flowers absorb it. So far, we’ve been doing this for local customers, but we’d like to introduce the dyed gypsophila at the auction now and find out if there’s any demand.”
How is the business doing?
“Prices for our gypsophila haven’t been bad this year. We can’t complain. June, July and August are normally quite slow, but they weren’t this year. The prices remained high. The weather conditions were favourable, too. We had quite some control over our production. We grow outside, so we’re totally dependant on the weather. Last year, we had very heavy rainfalls, causing quite some damage. We lost a lot of plants that year.”
Who do you sell to?
“80% of our production is sold at the auction in the Netherlands. 95% of this goes through Aalsmeer and if we have a lot of production, we also send some to Naaldwijk. We’d like to increase our sales at the auction, by ensuring our products are there every day. We don’t always succeed in that, though. We only sell directly when our volume is too small for the auction. We’ve noticed that more and more growers are leaving the auction. That creates space for others. The volume of gypsophila from South America for example, went down. As a result, the demand at the auction went up. I do think that the auction should be more innovative and attract more buyers. That way, fewer growers and buyers would walk off.
Does the weak euro cause any problems for you?
“The flowers we sell at the auction are paid for in euros. The flowers that we sell directly are paid for in dollars. Our costs are expressed in dollars and Kenyan shillings. The euro is still a bit higher than the dollar, but the difference is getting smaller. I have no idea how these things are going to develop in the future.”
What are your plans for the future?
“Our options to expand the farm used to be limited, but that’s no longer the case. We want to focus on the growth of the company. We’re very interested in cultivating different kinds of flowers. Rose is definitely one of them. But initially, we’ll expand our gypsophila crops and add other summer flowers such as statice and eryngium. That’s our plan for the coming year.”
About:
Grower: Daniel Moge
Company: Kimman Roses
Function: Managing director
Acreage: 12 ha
Place: Nakuru, Kenya
