At the beginning of October, four buyers from Germany and the Netherlands traveled to the still relatively unknown flower country Colombia at the invitation of the Import Promotion Desk (IPD). In five days, they visited twelve flower farms around Bogotá and in Antioquia. The farms showed the great variety of flowers that Colombia has to offer, such as chrysanthemums, gypsophila, hydrangeas, carnations, craspedia, aster, alstromeria, etc. In addition, the European buyers got to know the special quality management of small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Getting to know the story behind the product and the company is very valuable for my daily business" Robin Weisheit from "Weisheit Blumengrosshandel" described his motivation to travel to Colombia with the IPD. And Karl-Heinz Kroell from "Bluetenpracht," who has been working with "American Flowers" from Medellin for a year, was also enthusiastic: "It's great to finally visit the beautiful farm that supplies us with high-quality hydrangeas and to see where our products come from." The ambitious travel program organized by IPD together with the export promotion organization ProColombia has paid off: the first orders of, e.g., chrysanthemums, hydrangeas, Craspedia, and gypsophila were placed directly in Colombia and are already on their way to Europe.
"We are pleased that our service has been so well received by European importers," says Dr. Andreas Gemaehlich, an expert for Sourcing + Markets in the cut flowers sector at the Import Promotion Desk. "As an import promotion initiative, we arrange contact with carefully selected cut flower producers. At the beginning of November, we will again be at the international trade fair IFTF to present our partner companies from Ecuador, Colombia, and Kenya and their range of cut flowers. In addition, another buying mission is planned to Kenya in the summer of 2023 as part of IFTEX in Nairobi."
For more information:
Import Promotion Desk
Andreas Gemaehlich
IPD Expert Sourcing + Markets
gemaehlich@importpromotiondesk.de
www.importpromotiondesk.de