Ruud Klasens, Lesia and Hennie Brockhoff of Schreurs at the Flower Expo Ukraine 2017, that took place from March 21-23.
Ascania grows around 35 rose varieties in a 20 ha greenhouse in Dymytrovo village, Kyiv region. They work with major breeders like Kordes Roses, Rosen Tantau, Dummen-Orange, Royal De Ruiter and Schreurs. The greenhouse is divided in four blocks of 5 ha and every year, they sometimes skip a year, Ascania replaces a block with new plants. This year, the plants will again be supplied by Schreurs.
"We will supply 8 different varieties. Interesting to notice is that they usually carefully consider what varieties to plant and often choose to take existing varieties", Schreurs' agent Hennie Brockhoff. "Also in this case one new variety will be planted. Ascania-Flora has a stable program for the testing of novelties and follow their own strategy in this process."
Taisy Gandzuik of Ascania at the Flower Expo Ukraine 2017.
According to Brockhoff, Ascania is not only the largest Ukrainian rose grower, they are also at the forefront regarding cultivation knowhow. "They have a very good team of agronomists and are using advanced Dutch equipment and techniques. "They, for example, grow their roses in a 5 meter tall greenhouse, on rockwool substrate, use drip irrigation and plant nutrition, artificial lighting system and use a dispensing system of carbon dioxide. All in all, this enables them to be the highest rose producing company in Eastern Europe"
The roses of Ascania at their booth at the Flower Expo Ukraine 2017.
The company exports to countries like Moldavia, Poland and Germany, but the majority is being sold to the local market. "At the wholesalers, you mainly see roses that are grown by Ascania or Camelia, another large Ukrainian rose grower."
A one-minute video of the company.
And how is Ascania dealing with the crisis? "Of course, Ascania was also affected by the crisis in 2014. They noticed a decrease in demand for roses, but due to the drastic drop in value of the hryvnia against the euro, the imported products became more expensive. So, even though they noticed a drop in demand, it could have been worse. And this year, they have had better sales on March 8, Women's Day, compared to last year. They are quite positive and optimistic when looking to the years to come."
For more information:
TopFlower BV
Hennie Brockhoff
Email: hennie@topflower.nl
Schreurs
www.schreurs.nl