Ecuador: Greenhouse construction Forever Flowers complete

The greenhouses are finished, the first plants will soon be planted and the first alstroemeria and roses are expected to be harvested in September 2022. The farm in question, Forever Flowers, is based in Cayambe, Ecuador and is a project of Santiago Partnership, a U.S. non-profit organization founded by Joel and Kim Delp, who together came to Ecuador as missionaries and set up the Santiago Partnership.  The Santiago Partnership serves in collaboration with the local foundation FACE which administrates everything in Cayambe.

Campaign
The project was officially launched in 2014 with the aim to make the community more self-sustainable. They decided to set up the farming project with a funding campaign in 2020. With the $110,000 that was raised during the first funding campaign, they purchased the land and had enough financial resources to build greenhouses on the first half hectare.

Last year, they set up their second campaign, with the aim to raise $75,000. "It will provide a loan to help community members develop a micro-farm as well as to construct the post-harvest facility and eventually we want to expand to another half a hectare to increase production," says Joel Delp. 

Roses and alstroemerias
After 20 days of building, the greenhouse construction was completed on December 28. They will plant three alstroemeria varieties (Caddo, Pecoos and Hodi) in January, and they will plant 40,0000 to 65,000 rootstocks. Later on, the varieties Freedom, Mondial and Explorer will be grafted onto these rootstocks.

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Flowers for the national and international market
The first flowers are expected to be harvested in September 2022. "We expect to harvest 2,000 stems per week (8,000 per month and 96,000 per year)." The flowers are destined for the national and international market, particularly the US market.

The Santiago Partnership is still receiving donations through Sunday, January 9th as they have not met their goal yet though they are close with $72,668 being raised.  They hope to receive the remaining donations to reach the goal of $75,000 by that date.  You can learn more and donate at https://foreverflowers2.causevox.com/.