Growing roses in Spain. No less than 14 ha Red Naomi! in modern greenhouses. The Aleia Roses project in Soria, around 240 kilometres north of Madrid, attracts attention. The first plants are ready. Time for a tour and an interview with CEO Luis Corella Arroquia.
by Hans Neefjeshansneefjes@hortipoint.nl
A Dutch project in Spain. That’s how CEO Luis Corella Arroquia describes his investment in this rose nursery in northern Spain. And indeed, during the tour of the company it does feel like we could be in a Dutch greenhouse. It’s large – to be precise: 14.3 ha of glass spread out over two blocks. All the latest techniques are being used. These include diffuse glazing as well as Bercomex’s very first Furora rose grading and bunching machine.
“We want to distinguish ourselves in the market through a high level of quality. That requires a certain investment and scale. Quality is the key word for the future of many producers in Europe, including rose growers. Of course there will still be competition. If you compared the European rose cultivation with Formula 1 racing, we’d be the Spanish team. We are all taking part in the same race and we need the same audience to make money.”
The CEO won’t say anything about the exact amount that was invested. But he’s keen to dispel a rumour: “Don’t compare us to the project that Ciccolella started in Italy. We didn’t receive any large subsidies from the EU or from the Spanish government for our project. We only got around 200k from the government to assist with training. That’s because our activities will help with reducing the high unemployment rate in Spain.”
Tomatoes in MexicoLuis Corella Arroquia (58) once worked in the security industry and had shares in Bionatur (tomato grower) in Mexico. Bionatur cultivates vine tomatoes and beef tomatoes for the North American market. Dalsem started building their greenhouses in 2003 and DLV was one of the advisors. The CEO learned back then that Dutch knowledge and technology are needed to produce high quality horticultural products.
“We could harvest 85 kg/m2 top quality per year. Very different tomatoes than those that people were used to from Mexico.” Corella Arroquia wanted to set up something new in Spain, together with some investors. “No tomatoes. I’ll leave that to the growers around Almeria.”
We conducted various studies with regards to founding a large-scale flower production facility, together with consultancy firms such as VEK and DLV. Crops like lily, chrysanthemum and gerbera were eventually dismissed. The production of high-quality roses seemed to have the most potential. Red Naomi! soon came into view. It is the most cultivated and best rated rose in Europe and the market for red roses is the largest.
Negotiations with breeder Schreurs were started. At the time, there was around 85 ha of Red Naomi! in the Netherlands. Expanding that to 100 ha had to be possible. Luis Corella Arroquia is aware that this expansion is a sensitive issue, both with growers and with traders. He also knows that he has to prove himself.
“Competition is strong. Market studies have shown us that there are still plenty of opportunities for high-quality Red Naomi! in Europe. We want to take those opportunities, together with chain partners and also together with growers in the Netherlands. Together, we can develop Red Naomi! to an even higher level and expand markets. Together we can prove that our product is different from the roses from Africa and South America.”
Distribution market
According to the CEO, there’s a large distribution market for Red Naomi! in Spain. Currently, roses from South America are most popular. This is because of their toughness and price. “We want to prove that we can deliver an affordable bunch of roses with a 2-week shelf life.” Flower consumption isn’t very high in Spain, the average lies around €20 per person.
Luis Corella Arroquia thinks that that amount could be increased through a mix of quality, targeted marketing and collaboration in the distribution chain. Aleia Roses already has a marketing and communication plan, which also includes a branding policy. But it’s a bit too early to say too much about it. “We won’t be cutting our first roses until November. And with roses, it always takes a few months before there is continuity in the supply of the highest quality.”
The company name ‘Bionatur’ won’t be used on packaging or in marketing. It was used for the tomatoes in Mexico, but the marketeers discovered that it wouldn’t work for the flower industry. It was decided that the fantasy name Aleia was a good sounding, international name, which has the desired ‘cheerful’ association as well. More trade names are still being developed, because the company wants to distribute the various quality categories via different channels, from supermarket to top florist.
The company has already been talking with Henk Lammers as well, to gain knowledge about transport, packaging and distributing. Lammers established wholesale company Wesseling Spain in 1985 and eventually he became CEO with Wesseling Export in Aalsmeer. But this company closed down in the beginning of 2016. And Lammers is now an employee of Bionatur.
Transport
Meanwhile, it was found that Royal FloraHolland in Aalsmeer had space available, where auction preparations for Aleia Roses’ roses could take place. Lammers will be based there, to arrange transport between Soria and Aalsmeer. “It’s 1,600 kilometres. That can be covered by two drivers in 20 hours. But when the traffic is bad, we’ll need a third driver to help out. With a Dutch carrier, this can all be organised without too many problems.”
We’ll be cutting around 120,000 roses per day in a little while. That means two or three lorries of roses to Aalsmeer every day. Lammers: “In the end, we need about 12 more hours than Dutch growers before we can sell at the auction. The flowers that we cut on a Monday, can’t be sold at the auction until Wednesday. Whatever arrives on a Friday morning, can still be used in the Netherlands for same day orders.”
Distribution
Luis Corella Arroquia says that Aleia Roses needs Royal FloraHolland for its distribution, definitely the first couple of years. It’s a good way to reach a wide range of customers and to specialise. The CEO knows that the developments with regards to distribution are changing rapidly. He closely follows new trends such as sales through web shops, KOA, digitalisation and FloraHolland’s role in the distribution chain.
“The Netherlands is the leader in the flower chain. But you don’t stay ahead automatically. You’ll have to continue investing. This applies to Dutch growers, for FloraHolland, for traders, for everyone. With Red Naomi! we want to have a leading position in the European market within two years. We need good chain partners to achieve this. As the market is changing so fast, you’ll constantly have to evaluate whether you’re making the right choices.”
River water
It took several years to find a suitable location for the company. Eventually, a site was found nearby Soria, a town with 40,000 inhabitants. The site is flat, climate conditions are suitable, it gets a sufficient amount of rain (900 mm spread out over the year) and there’s good quality river water in the area.
There’s 2,000 hours more sunshine here than in the Netherlands, temperatures go up to 35 °C during the day and down to 15 °C on average at night. You may even get some frost. The altitude, 1,100 metres above sea level, ensures that it doesn’t get too muggy here. “Last night, the temperature went down to 5 °C. The average temperature over a 24-hour period is 19 to 20 °C.” says Andre Boerlage during our tour of the greenhouse.
Boerlage and his brothers had a rose nursery in Aalsmeer until 2005, but they had to shut it down because of the construction of the N201 road. Since then, he has been using his experience as a rose grower at other nurseries, for example in Kenya and Kazakhstan. His brother Ben did the same and worked on projects in Eastern Europe. Now they’re working together again, in Spain.
Ben Boerlage explains, “I am responsible for block 2 and Andre for block 1. I’m more of a grower, the man in the greenhouse. Andre has more feeling for climate and personnel. It used to be like that in our own company in Aalsmeer, too.”
Tomato nursery
The Boerlage brothers are advised by a Dutch rose specialist, who came over for the first time in week 37. In addition, there are six Spanish horticultural specialists who got training in the Netherlands and are now given certain responsibilities at the nursery in Spain. Sergio Moreno Martinez is the CCO. He worked at Bionatur’s tomato nursery in Mexico for 12.5 years and has been working in Spain since September 2015, when the construction of the rose nursery started.
The Spaniard sees similarities between tomato and rose.” If you want to achieve top production and high quality, you need the best technology and the best knowledge. And you have to be strict about hygiene and work in accordance with protocols. We’ll only allow our staff to enter the greenhouse and we’ll be using special workwear.”
Irradiation
During our company tour in week 37, the weather in northern Spain had just turned. It was no longer 30°C, but very cloudy instead, with a bit of rain and a cool, northern wind. But when the sun comes out, you immediately feel it in the greenhouse. “At the moment, we’re still achieving an irradiation of 3,200 Joule here. In December, it can get up to 650 J/day. It is similar to growing in Kazakhstan, which is more or less at the same latitude”, explains Andre Boerlage.
He isn’t worried about extremes in the greenhouses. They’re fitted with diffuse glazing and sprinkler systems as well as with humidification systems and screens that can be used for climate control. Before we started building, Wageningen University calculated, using the KASPRO program, that when the outdoor temperature is 35°C, it’ll be 28°C inside the greenhouse. When this situation actually occurred, the indoor temperature reached 26°C.
Thrips
Boerlage isn’t worried about mildew either, because the humidity in this area is relatively low, just like in Kazakhstan. “I expect that our biggest problem will be thrips. We’ll probably be able to control spider mite with phytoseiulus. Thrips is trickier, but we’re going to tackle that using biological pest control as well. I also want to put up wires over each bed and hang blue and yellow trap plants from them. Everything you can trap, helps a little.”
The first plants were put on the mats in week 36. In the coming time, two to three lorries a week will be shipping plants from Schreurs to Spain. The breeder has cultivated parent plants so that the entire propagation process can be done at their own company in De Kwakel. In total, 36 full lorries will be needed to transport around 1 million plants.
Quality
The two Furora bunching machines, the first in a series for roses, are important products in Bercomex’s range of automatic processing machines. A machine can process 9,500 stems per hour and sort into 24 different grades. CEO Luis Corella Arroquia:
“The first cuts won’t immediately be of top quality, but that’s part of rose growing. We have factored this in and will find a distribution market for them. In the end, we’ll distinguish ourselves based on quality. People will recognise our brands by our name, foil and container collars. All flowers will enter the sales chain cooled and on water, which will set us apart even more, especially compared with roses from Africa and South America. Dry, long lasting and unconditioned transport reduces the value of fresh produce.”
Sustainable
In the communications about their roses, the nursery wants to emphasize their sustainable use of energy. They will for example be getting CO2 and heat from a nearby biomass power station in the future. With regards to their human resource policy, there’s a strong focus on training and salaries will be higher than the applicable minimum wage. There will be work for 200 people, both young and older people and both for men and women. Spain doesn’t have any regulations that make it mandatory to give work to disabled people, but Aleia Roses would like to offer suitable jobs to a few people with disabilities nonetheless. It isn’t clear yet if working hours are going to be split up into two or three shifts.
A presentation for press was held on Thursday 22 September in the horticultural museum ‘Historische Tuin’ in Aalsmeer. The new player on the market wants to express openly that they’re pioneering in Spain and growing in a sustainable way with the use of Dutch breeding technologies. Luis Corella Arroquia: “You could say they’re Dutch roses with a Spanish touch.”
