Rows of roses that bloomed on a farm in Kajiado, are being packed up to be sent out to lovers worldwide. Love is in the air ahead of Valentine's Day in Kenya.
Isinya Roses and Porini Flowers grows standard roses and red roses; Valentine's day is a big event for the company. But despite being a busy period - they are also feeling the impact of the war in Ukraine and high inflation.
"All our exports to Russia were passing through Netherlands, and now since there is a restriction from Netherlands, there is no export to Russia. We are facing a big problem and bigger challenges. We also had five percent of our volumes going into Ukraine, which has completely stopped now. With the restriction of Netherlands transporting to Russian countries, even the Russian orders have dropped drastically. That volume, we are trying to see where we can sell, which countries can take that which is still a struggle, we are still struggling on that," explains Ananth Kumar, group marketing manager, Isinya Roses, and Porini Flowers.
Around 60 percent of the company's flower harvests is bought by the European market. The rest is bought by Australia, the Middle East, the UK, Russia, and Asia. But with the weakening of the Euro, the company is feeling the impact of the economic downturn. Coupled with the rise in the cost of living worldwide, households are cutting down on their spending - sales have dropped significantly, says Kumar.
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