Spanish grower Rosa Espinosa López
What kind of company is Viveros Canos?
“It’s a true family business; we’ve been active in the horticultural industry for the past sixty years. I’m from the third generation – daughter of one of Viveros Canos’ owners. My cousin Elena works in the company too. We grow trees, shrubs, bamboo, palm trees, dracaena, fruit trees, olive trees, cycadales and desert plants, such as yucca, aloe, agave and cacti, on a 40-ha site in the south-west of Spain, close to Portugal. We also have a 12-ha sales location in the Valencia region. We’ve got 40 employees.”
Which are your most important markets?
“We sell our plants on the Spanish market and we export to European, Asian and Arab countries. Exports are going well. We used to sell more within Spain, but when we were hit by the crisis, we started exporting more. We currently export around 70% of our produce. 30% stays in Spain. Those numbers used to be very different. The Spanish economy is still recovering. The crisis is ongoing.”
What are you hoping to get out of exhibiting at IPM, Essen?
“We’re here to show our desert plants in particular. Like the hesperaloe for example – a plant that flowers from April to September. It can handle both cold and hot weather conditions. We think that desert plants suit the various European climates – they can withstand both the cold and the heat and they’re more or less maintenance-free. They need hardly any water. These days, people don’t want to spend too much time working in their gardens.”
Do you exhibit at many trade shows?
“Until 2012, we would go to IPM every now and again. But since then, we’ve been here every year. This was the first time that all Spanish companies were grouped together in hall 7. They used to be spread out over the entire trade floor. We exhibit at Iberflora in Valencia as well. And we were at Salon du Vegetal last year, but we won’t be able to make it this time because they moved it to a different date. The new dates don’t suit us. But we’ll be at Paysalia in Lyon later on, in December. And last year, we promoted our plants at Floralien in Belgium as well.”
What are your plans for the future?
“We try to launch some new varieties every year. Some of the work for that is done by ourselves; we do some of the breeding and we’ve got our own in-vitro lab for propagations. We would also like to expand a little every year, that has become harder these days but we try our best.”
