Country file

programs, it aims to cut the violence breeds violence cycle by training people through a series of simple workshops on how to defuse problems before they escalate, at home or work. Based on mediation, and by teaching negotiation skills, the program became very popular, and over 20,000 families have attended it. Now with new USAID resources it aims at 50,000 families. The list goes on with Continued Education, School Reinforcement, and others, in a total of US$ 20 million invested in 2005.

Too good to be true?

All in all, by acting locally, a decisive step

has been taken in the right direction. Such initiatives are a testimonial that the sector has reached maturity and has more than cold numbers to show for it. The private sector is sharing the cost of social progress with health, education, and housing programs, areas where the government alone has not been able to take care in its entirety. Better-trained, fed and paid, workers are naturally more productive in a classical win-win situation, with further gains for the environment and, finally, the consumer as well. For profitable ornamental sectors worldwide, this is a powerful example of how much can be done when there is a change of mind set. Jairo Cadavid, Asocolflores communica-

Some 17,000 children under the age of seven join day care centres which allows their mothers, who often head the household, to work.

tions director is growing familiar with the sense of disbelief visitors experience upon seeing a reality so different from its previous image and stereotypes. We are an open-door sector, and Asocolflores extends its invitation to everyone who would like to learn about us and our development. n

Colombias Flower Power

In spite of the weakening dollar, Colombian flower exports continue to grow and hope to achieve an enviable US$ 1 billion.
By Mauricio C. Mathias mauriciomathias@hotmail.com On the foreign front, the US Congress approved a temporary renewal last December to Colombia for the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA). This extends the present tax-free entry of Colombian goods into the US market; in the meantime it is expected that the Congresses of both countries sanction Colombias definite entry into the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). With that Colombia joins 15 other countries in the Americas to sign bilateral forms of the FTA. Flower exports jumped up 29% in value in 2005 alone, after an yearly average growth of 5% in the previous years between 1995 and 2004. According to Ernesto Vlez, Asocolflores president of the board of directors this has been due to productivity increases and production lag. In 2005 we harvested expansions, replantings and varietal changes undertaken by growers two to three years before, and a leveling off will probably take place in 2007. Flowers rank fourth among the seven export traditional commodities as listed by the Colombian Ministry of Trade; within agricultural products it comes well behind coffee, but earns twice as much as bananas. Its social weight though is by far more important, for these traditional crops employ 1 and 0.8 workers/ha respectively, while with flowers it is 16. Having exported US$ 906 million in 2005, with nearly 7,000 ha of floriculture, the Colombian flower sector employs 200,000 people directly - meaning that almost 1 million people derive their livelihood from flowers, in a country of 42 million people. Internally 700 flower farms represent 300 companies that have the following profile broken down by size and export participation in the national total: 40 big companies (50+ hectares) export 50%, 60 medium (20+ hectares) export 25%, while 200 Small (- 20 hectares ) export 25%. Together they export their flowers to 76 different countries.

A
www.HortiWorld.nl

lready the main US flower supplier, and second largest exporter worldwide, Colombia has addressed several issues to arrive where its at. Now, as part of the quest to keep the growth momentum, technology is being looked at closely. Even though technology alone may not help growers recoup margins lost to devaluation, Ceniflores, a virtual research centre was inaugurated by Asocolflores in 2004 to address the growers need for know-how.

FlowerTECH 2007, vol. 10/no. 1

Country file

Ceniflores
The Colombian Centre for Innovation in Floriculture is the latest, and probably most promising, development within Asocolflores. It can best be defined as a virtual research center directed by a Canadian with a PhD degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Rebecca Lee, Ceniflores director, explains that, Asocolflores had been managing research under its technical division, but the Association formalised this area providing more agility in finding solutions to the growers problems. The design of the Centre started in 2003, when a supply and demand survey was taken to assess what was already available and what was needed by growers. On the supply side it was determined that there actually was an under-utilised research capacity in Colombia, with available scientists and laboratories. Thats where the virtual

98% of Alstoemerias imported into the USA come from Colombia.

Asocolflores
Asocolflores, the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters represents 75% (in value) of all of Colombias flower exports. It was started in 1973 and from then on it has been involved in almost every aspect of the flower business, except for trading. Top among Asocolflores actions has been the Florverde program, which is largely

responsible for the success of the industry in the last years, making Colombian floriculture sustainable (see article, page 6). As this social and environmental program neared its 10th anniversary with secured gains for the sector, Colombian growers started looking at other ways of maintaining growth in a sustainable way.

Challenges for Asocolflores

Augusto Solano has been Asocolflores president since 2000. Today he manages 46 employees at the association, which he runs with its 21 directors at the board. During his tenure participation in Florverde has gone up from 50 to 150 farms. Last year he received the John H. Walker 2006 Award, from SAF - the Society of American Florists - for the role he has played as an industry executive. He shares some of his perspectives on the future of Colombian production. How serious is the Peso revaluation to the Colombian grower exporter? It is serious, but how serious is something that depends on how long the trend will last. If its a matter of months it can be bearable, if we are talking years than it is extremely grave to our sector. Naturally, the way specific companies are affected is a function of which market they are in, their varieties, trade option, etc, so its hard to generalise. However, two or three companies did close down in 2006. It can be assumed that they may have been in trouble already, but its not a good sign. Besides that what would be Asocolflores next challenge? To increase US per capita demand. Presently only 28% of American homes purchase flowers on a regular basis, the remainder being still a special date market. This low penetration hasnt increased, so, in order to continue growing we have to solve these two issues. Our sector hasnt increased the planted area lately, but rather increased yield and efficiency. What are the changes expected with the Free Trade Agreement? Interestingly the FTA should not bring about too many changes, because it sets down permanently the tax-free entry Augusto Solano, president of that our flowers have had into the US Asocolflores. for some years now due to ATPA. It does increase the overall confidence for both sides though. Any other important developments? The renewal of Bogotas airport is at the top of the list. Its being modernised to increase its capacity from the present 500 thousand tons to 1.5 million tons per year along the next five years, as part of the FTA. The government opened a bid and it was won by an international consortium - the project is designed the Paris Airports and operated by Zurich airport which has a concession to run the Bogota airport for 20 years. Over US$ 650 million should be invested within the next five years.

10

FlowerTECH 2007, vol. 10/no. 1

www.HortiWorld.nl

Country file

came from: there was no need to spend money replicating a physical infra-structure that was already there. What we did then was to catalogue researchers and their specialties, so now we have projects set up with specialists at several Colombian universities, as well as with international experts, without fixed costs. On the demand side, Rebecca mentions some of the projects. One of them concerns the effect of plant nutrition on the occurrence of downy mildew, and thats been underway in partnership with CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture). Another one is about flower post-harvest, an international collaboration with the University of Florida. Research results are subsequently present-

ed to growers in workshops. Two other projects focus on precise entomological classification, essential for checking quarantine pests. More information on their research and publications can be seen at www.ceniflores.org.

Interdependence with US
According to Ernesto Vlez, the relative importance of the flower trade for both the US and Colombia can not be underestimated. Not only do 60% of flowers sold in the US come from Colombia, but the specific share of some of the flowers in that market can be as high as 98% for alstroemerias, 97% for carnations, 82% for mums and poms and 70% for roses. From the Colombian perspective, 85 % of their
The level of technology is steadily increasing backed by the Colombian Centre for Innovation in Floriculture.

flowers go the USA. Involvement in the European market has fluctuated around 15% of Colombian flower exports, over the past five years, with substantial growth in the UK and Russian markets. n

www.HortiWorld.nl

FlowerTECH 2007, vol. 10/no. 1

11