"Weather has been the main challenge this year, but all in all, we are pleased with this year's Valentine's Day season," says Andrew Wambua, Managing Director at Mzurrie Flowers. Next week, on February 14, Valentine's Day is celebrated. It has been a busy period, and the last 'Valentine's Day' roses from this Kenyan farm are leaving today (February 8).
Andrew Wambua.
Higher demand
Wambua points out that this year's Valentine's Day season demand was higher than last year. According to Wambua, Mzurrie has sold all its reds directly, and we even received more inquiries that we could not take. "And also for the other colors, we saw a high demand."
Not flushing the crop
Valentine's Day is an important holiday for Mzurrie, but they do not 'flush' their crop. Wambua says: "We don't do a big flush as we have year-round deals with our direct customers, and hence, we try to avoid flushing for just this one event. We only do 40-50% flushing of the reds."
Growing demand for colors and mixed bouquets
Although red is still the most important color, Wambua notices a growing demand for pink, white, and cerise roses, as well as for mixed bouquets. Most of Mzurrie's roses go directly to the UK, The Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, and the Middle East.
Weather rather than airfreight challenges
According to Wambua, the weather was this year's main challenge: "We got rains in January, which brought some growing challenges such Downey Mildew and slowed growth," he says. He also elaborates on the methods that Mzurrie took in response to these challenges: "We strictly maintain high hygiene conditions in the greenhouses and integrated pest management practices. In addition, we ensured that our trucks arrive at the airport early in the morning".
Airfreight capacity challenges, however, were unexpectedly mitigated, says Wambua. He explains: "We expected the airfreight capacity to be a challenge, but luckily, the freighters brought extra capacity, which mitigated capacity issues. The only problem was long queues at the airport for the lorries/trucks waiting to offload flowers".
For more information:
Mzurrie Flowers
https://www.mzurrieflowers.co.ke/