Christian Schwartz at the IPM Essen.
Shift to phaleanopsis cultivation
In its 2ha greenhouse, Schwarts grows 6, 9 and 12 cm phaleanopsis. In 1978, his farter started the business and cultivated green foliage plants. About 19 years later, in 1997 they started cultivating phaleanopsis and completely shifted to this production in 2005 as the plant became very popular. "We started with producing the large ones, the 12 cm phaleanopsis, only. But over the years, we also added smaller ones, the 6 and 9 cm phaleanopsis", says Schwartz.
Market under pressure
Unfortunately, the market for phalaenopsis is under pressure at the moment. According to Schwartz, the main reason for this is the situation in Russia. "Besides the fact that the phalaenopsis is not as popular as it used to be, we also lost a large market. About three years ago, Russia was our biggest markets. However now, as the Russian requests declined, more plants stay on the European market and therefore need to be sold on this market. As a consequence, the prices drop", he says. However, according to Schwartz there is a difference between the different phalaenopsis sizes. "The 12 cm are hit the hardest (30-40 euro cent per plant decrease in price), the 6cm goes up and down and the 9cm is still going well", he says.
Hope for better times
The prices are low, but the energy costs in Denmark are high (around 12 percent higher). This makes it even more challenging for this phalaenopsis grower. "For a good phalaenopsis cultivation we need to heat up the greenhouse to 28 Degrees Celsius", says Schwartz. "We hope for better times, but in the meanwhile, we try to stand out with good quality products and a good service. We are a smaller business, and this enables us to be more flexible than the larger ones on the market", concludes Schwartz.
For more information
Gartneriet Rønbæk
Christian H. Schwartz
Email: chr@roenbaek.dk
www.roenbaek.dk