Business
EA’s flowering exports nipped in the bud
A worker at a flower farm in Kenya packs roses for export to Europe. Governments and players in the horticulture industry are crafting new interventions to help the sector stay afloat. Photo/FILE
Posted Saturday, May 2 2009 at 12:32
One exporter whose buyer had been taking 1.5 million stems says this figure has gone down to 500,000 stems.
Jacques Schrier, managing director of the Royal Van Zaten flower firm, which specialises in chrysanthemums (cuttings), said: “Our clients in Europe are going bankrupt and our sales are going down.We are not sure of the future now”.
Ms Musoke adds that the government should provide subsidies on freight, especially on surcharge and security.
Currently the firms are charged $2.44 (Ushs4,880) per kilogramme.
In 2003, flower growers pleaded with President Yoweri Museveni to stop banks from selling off their businesses.
Following Museveni’s intervention, the Bank of Uganda appointed consultants from Nairobi to study the sector and make appropriate recommendations.
The consultants identified the main sector problems as: high interest rates on loans in US dollars; short repayment periods and unviable sizes of projects.
The government set up a “refinancing rescue fund” to assist growers.
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