AQ Roses Ethiopia celebrates 10th anniversary

AQ Roses in Ethiopia, the rose nursery owned by family business Rosa Plaza in Rijsenhout, the Netherlands, has existed for 10 years. They don’t hold to a specific date, according to Wim Ammerlaan, but they held a nice party at the nursery a month ago. As can also be seen and read on the website, the workers - especially some 25 employees from the very beginning – were put in the limelight.

After its founding the rose nursery quickly grew from 18 to about 40 hectares. These are large areas, but relatively modest in comparison with other rose growers in Africa. And that is on purpose: The bigger it gets, the harder it is to maintain good quality, says Wim. "We distinguish ourselves by providing the best quality and service to our customers. We want to keep doing this, so optimizing our quality and service is our main focus."

All roses - annually some 100 million stems in more than 15 varieties - are flown from the nursery in Ethiopia to Aalsmeer. There the roses are processed in the business’ own packing company Amflora, packaged and shipped to customers. At the parent company, the nursery in Rijsenhout, hydrangeas have been grown instead of roses for a while now.