On Wednesday August 7, Chinese Valentine's Day will be celebrated - one of the biggest holidays for the flower growers exporting to this country. Also for Ecuadorian rose farms BellaRosa and RoseConnection, it is an important holiday and this year, the demand for their tinted roses is going through the roof. "We will produce 0.5 million tinted roses. We probably could sell more, but we do not have the installations yet to produce more."
Andres Proano and Gonzalo Luzuriaga at the IPM Shanghai, China
Supply to China
After exploring the market and its opportunities, BellaRosa and RoseConnection started to export their flowers to China six years ago. "At that time, there were only a few who dared to import. It took us some years to establish relationships, but we now have customers in Shanghai, Beijing, Kunming and Guangzhou", says Gonzalo Luzuriaga, Executive President of BellaRosa.
Event-based
Most of the flowers they sell to China are event related, but as they have so many holidays, volumes go out on a quite frequent basis. "They have many holidays, but the most popular for the flower industry are Chinese New Year, Valentines, Women’s Day, QI XI. For the flower industry, Chinese Valentine's Day and 'Western' Valentine's Day (February 14) are the most important holidays, followed by March 8 and Mother's Day."
RoseConnection showed customers at the Hortiflorexpo Shanghai how their roses are packed.
Tinted roses
Tinted flowers are highly popular in China and over the years, BellaRosa gained good experience in tinting roses. "12 years ago, we tinted the first roses. We started with blue and increased our color palette, improving the processes over the years. Now, we and our clients are satisfied with the quality of the product." And the tinted roses go out to countries all over the world. "Every day, 50,000 tinted roses leave the farm, which is 400,000 per month."
Tinted roses for Chinese Mother's Day
For Chinese Mother's Day, the demand for tinted roses is high too. "For last year we sold almost 300,000 stems of tinted roses, for this year our goal is to sell around 450,000 stems. For this reason we have extended our installations. The demand is probably even higher, but we cannot produce it as we do not have the installations yet to produce more."
For more information:
BellaRosa
www.bellarosa.com