Last Thursday, we drove to Andradas, which is the centre of the Brazilian rose cultivation. Rose growers are hoping for a dry autumn, as this will reduce the risk of fungi infested crops. In Holambra, on the other hand, there’s often a shortage of water. Even if many growers have ponds installed, they’ll only be filled when there’s water on the roofs.
We visited three roses growers in Andradas, which is an hour’s drive away from Holambra and situated at an altitude of 1,300-m. Geraldo Reijers was the first grower here. Together with his brother Erik, the pioneers were already growing roses at a 900-m altitude location. Until one day, driving through Andradas, they decided to stop and have a look around, and wondered: why not grow roses at 1,300 metres altitude?
They rented some land and put a few greenhouses on it. The market wanted more. 25 years later, they’ve got a 25-ha location with a new, tall, 6-ha greenhouse. Geraldo’s 22-year old son Danilo is in charge of the new greenhouse. Reijers’ example was soon followed by other growers. Nowadays, Andradas hosts a total acreage of 200 ha of rose, plus other flowers.
One of those rose companies is Rosas Flamingo. It’s owned by Rob van Rooijen, Roberto Kievitsbosch, and two investors. It’s spread over two locations of 10 and 14 ha. Set in stunning surroundings in mountainous, green Andradas. The views they’re getting from their office here are really something else!
Our first visit that morning was to Adriano van Rooijen. He came to Andradas in 2006 and has a 7-ha nursery. He’s currently swapping some of his rose cultivation for hydrangea, a product that’s relatively new in Brazil.
How is the rose cultivation doing? Unlike for the pot plant growers, things have slowed down for the flower growers, is what we learned. Growers have been postponing investments for a while. The crisis did affect flower growers, because they depend heavily on events. During the crisis, people were saving on flowers, in particular at events, explained Adriano. He added that flower growers have also been hurt by fact that supermarkets acquired a stronger position in the potted plant sales. Many florists disappeared; they couldn’t survive on the sale of flowers alone.
The growers that are united in the Cooperflora cooperative managed to establish quite a good relationship with the supermarkets over the years, said Reijers. Veiling Holambra has also increased its focus on the supermarkets. Many supermarket chains are already buying through the auction, and the auction developed a concept for flowers on the shop floor: Poética Flor. Veiling Holambra also attends a large retail trade fair every year, to try and acquire more retail customers.
Interestingly, Adriano van Rooijen was pleased that they hadn’t had too much rain for a while in Andradas. Their production was great; he didn’t have to throw away too many roses because of fungi.
Last year was very wet, with more than 2,500mm rain. The average is 2,200mm per year. Ventilation is important, especially in autumn, when dew can get the crops too wet. To prevent this, growers make sure there’s plenty of ventilation. Many of the greenhouses can be completely opened up on the sides. A bit like a convertible, but by folding down the walls instead of the roof.
The situation is very different in Holambra. They don’t get enough water there sometimes. I’ve already told you about Richard Wiemeersch, who was afraid he wouldn’t have enough irrigation water this year. It’s been very dry for a while, and the official 6-month dry period is about to begin. The De Bruin family said they were considering deepening one of their ponds. They don’t know yet if they can count on the water from the river.
Earlier in the week, we visited Frans and Patrick van de Weijer of Ecoflora. The first thing that Frans told us was how, a few years ago, he lost 95% of his amaryllis bulbs. The reason? Lack of water. The damage was great. He had to start all over again with his bulb propagation and he lost his market. Luckily, as he was able to anticipate the loss, he warned his customers in advance, which stopped them from claiming compensation.
In the meantime, Frans and Patrick had a large pond installed, which can store 95 million litres of water. But still: they need rain water to fill it.
Pot plant grower Piet van der Geest and his son Pieter also took measures to ensure they have sufficient irrigation water. We saw it when we stopped off for an impromptu visit that afternoon. Being from the Dutch town of Roelofarendsveen originally, Piet knows a thing or two about water management.
Both of á Rea Verde’s locations feature large ponds. If it does rain, it often comes down in buckets, 100mm in an hour isn’t unusual, so they collect the roof water via gutters, which lead it into large pipes. The underground pipes have a 60-cm diameter at the beginning and a 1-metre diameter where they flow into the pond.
Piet has the option of using water from a well, but that will be taxed in the future. He prefers rainwater. The downpours are very local sometimes. The auction had had lots of rain the previous night. But Piet hadn’t seen a single drop yet. Although, just when we set off, it started to rain.
Whether it continued? I don’t know. But for all of Holambra’s growers, I hope it did.
Up in Adradas, I got the impression there was plenty of water. Which was confirmed as we drove off, and the heavens opened. The water cascaded down the windscreen of André Kruijssen’s car, and ran down the road like a swirling river. Van Kruijssen’s earlier decision not to go paragliding turned out to be the right one. Foresight is the essence of government, as they say in Holland. And I’m brave enough now to say that I definitely would have launched off that mountain, despite my fear of heights.
Arie-Frans Middelburg
