WITH DEMAND and interest in flowers increasing across the UK, Floralinc is displaying that investment and expertise are key components to the development of the South Lincolnshire company.
Floralinc's state-of-the-art packhouse has cold stores, offices and loading bays. The company has also invested in two new Van den Berg packing lines, plus three original lines from the packhouse of F Dring & Sons, the primary supplier to Floralinc.
The packhouse facilities have been praised by the chairman of the NFU Board of Horticulture Graham Ward, who opened the site last October. He says: "The flower and ornamentals trade requires this sort of investment to compete for its market share with a well serviced, consistent continuity of high quality product."
The packhouse was built with the aid of a substantial grant obtained through Defra and the English rural development programme's marketing scheme.
Floralinc's managing director Paul Caddell has vast experience in ornamentals and says the company is prepared for the future. "We have a well-trained and dedicated team capable of handling all types of bouquet,” he explains.
Floralinc has also signed up with the leader grower support programme for BOPP/EurepGAP with the aim of becoming fully accredited into the scheme early in 2005.
Caddell says: "This is a major step in the development of our business, and will link in well with the assured produce scheme we currently hold on the flower production unit."
F Dring & Sons together with other local growers produces daffodils, tulips, sweet Williams, pinks, scented pinks, aster, gladioli and chrysanthemums.
The company is also growing new flower varieties this year including oriental lily, scabious, larkspur and zinnia.
Other UK products available which are packed and marketed are: paeonia, stocks, statice, lisianthus, alstroemeria, phlox, delphinium, carthemus. Floralinc also imports roses, carnation and gerbera.
VALENTINE’S HEADACHE
INDIAN ROSE exports have plummeted by as much as 34 per cent, due to Valentine's Day falling on a weekend.
The South India Floriculture Association said that exports would have been much better this year if Valentine's had fallen on a working day.
Nadeem Ahmad, president of the association, says: "Exports could have been better, but last minute orders still trickled in."
Exporters said most of the offices in Europe and Australia stayed closed on weekends, so a huge market of working professionals gifting flowers to colleagues in offices was untapped this year.
KS Ramakrishna, managing director of Karuturi Floritech, says: "We have to take such a hit once in five years. We expect to make up for this year' shortfall next year as Valentine's Day falls on Monday."
There is good news, however, as some Indian firms managed to get their flowers directly into UK retailers such as Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda bypassing the Dutch auction route.
The retailers have bought almost 700,000 stems from Karuturi Floritech this year. And Ramakrishna feels this is a shape of things to come. He says: "We have gained a toe-hold in the supermarket segment, which we have been working for, for the last seven years. Direct selling assures the growers of a fixed price for their produce unlike the auction system where the uncertainty of getting fair returns is high."
Flowers shipped through the Bangalore Air Cargo Complex up to February 8 stood at 137 tonnes, compared to the 2003 figure of 207t.
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