In less than two weeks, Valentine's Day (February 14) will be celebrated in many countries around the world. Many farms are currently in the middle of their Valentine's shipments and so is Kenyan rose farm Red Lands Roses. They are specialized in growing and exporting spray roses and garden roses and Isabelle Henin Spindler, Managing Director at the farm is pleased with this year's demand, however freight capacity and the high freight costs remain a challenge this year.
Isabelle Henin Spindler and Rita Wanjiku of Red Lands Roses at the IFTF 2019 in Vijfhuizen, the Netherlands.
Red Lands Roses is located in Ruiru, 35km Northeast of Nairobi, Kenya, at an altitude of 1800 meters above sea level where they grow a range of around 200 varieties of roses. With Russia being their biggest market, their flowers are shipped all over the world; Japan, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Latvia, France, Italy, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, UK and Ukraine.
They supply all their markets 100% direct and when looking at the demand and prices for their Valentine's Day orders, Spindler is pleased. "The demand is better than last year." Also about the quality, she is pleased. "The weather has been as it should be every year sunny and dry and subsequently, the quality is very good."
The main challenge this year, however, is freight. "The capacity is limited and the freight costs are very high, almost double as high", she says. So, how to deal with it? "We do our freight bookings in advance and we deliver one night before departure. In this way, we are secured of space in the plane."
Valentine's Day is an important day for Red Lands Roses. "If it is an important day for our clients, it is for us." Red is the most demanded color, followed by white, pink and garden roses in all colors. Since January 28, they are busy with shipping out their Valentine's orders and the final Valentine's Day shipments are expected to leave the farm on February 8th.
However, there is little time to rest as Women's Day (March 8) will quickly follow. This day is an important floral holiday in Russia.
For more information
:
Red Lands Roses
Rita Wanjiku
Email: [email protected]
www.redlandsroses.com