Buyers´ Mission for Ethiopia Cut Flowers

On March 23-27 CTS organized a Buyers’ Mission in partnership with EPHEA and the German Import Promotion Desk.

Buyers from Germany and Sweden visited commercial rose plantations in Ethiopia with potential to export to the EU market. The delegation also partook in the HortiFlora Expo 2015 in Addis Ababa, where most of the exporting commercial growers of Ethiopia were exhibiting.

The buyers found several growers of interest which could open up for more direct trade between Sweden and Germany on one hand and Ethiopia on the other hand.

The Swedish buyers Marie Elmermark, Hukra: – I am impressed by many of the commercial plantations that we have visited but I am also a little worried about the way they treat the sensitive products they are handling. I think that a crucial success factor for the farms to deliver good quality flowers that last long is to care about the flowers in a better way. The majority of the farms that we have visited deliver fairly small headed flowers and the Swedish market is more interested in the bigger heads, but I have also seen very impressive examples of good farms growing excellent flowers.

Going forward

Both buyers and organizing partners see that there is potential to increase the exports of flowers from Ethiopia to the EU. But there are some issues that needs to be resolved; the limited number of varieties that each producer offers and selling each variety at large quantities. The buyers want more varieties mixing roses with other kinds of flowers. Another problem is that today Ethiopian law does not allow forwarding agents to handle goods from multiple farms, which is allowed in Tanzania and Kenya. This is a policy that EHPEA is in active dialogue with the government to change.

Nevertheless we are likely to see an increase in import of flowers from Ethiopia to the Swedish and German markets as a direct result of this Buyers’ Mission.

For more information about the buyers mission and our cooperation with EPHEA contacts malin.dacke@chambertrade.se