Kenya: "Swimming in uncharted waters"

The class started quite well for most of flower grower in Kenya , with in force weather in January leading to a effective product over Valentine ’s Day . The Valentine price were also good and everybody was seem forward to a in force yr compared to the previous ones . However , it all move very different than anyone could have ever imagined . In this article , Andrew Wambua , General Manager at Molo River Roses - one of the three flower farm of Mzurrie Flowers - explains his experience . According to him , the twelvemonth felt as ' swimming in uncharted waters ' .

Andrew Wambua in the greenhouse .

From cancellation to cancellation - ' Everybody panicked'“As we were cook for the International Women ’s Day sale , news started trickling in of a certain strange virus which was stimulate deaths in China . To us , this was far - fetched news show as such pandemic in late times have been localized and seldom do they spread out that tight . It did n’t take long before all the sales orders for China customers were cancelled . That was other March and the reality get drop into us . The virus start pass around in Europe and Russia like a President George W. Bush flack and what followed was cancellation of orders by almost all our customers . With the lockdown of all saving and closing of borders , there was very limited cargo space to transport the few orders receive . The auction sale market totally collapsed leading to demolition of many flowers . Everybody panic . "

Many farms cut labour forceThe reaction from everybody was to bar most of the operations , send hoi polloi home and wait to see the instruction this situation will take , he explains . " Many farms bar harvest , fertigation and even taking care of pests and diseases . A lot of doer lost their jobs as many farms cut down their labor force by 60 % . The few who stay were take to take a salary cut of between 30 - 50 % . "

Mzurrie Flowers continued - only export 15 - 20%Mzurrie Flowers act differently . Wambua : " With its visual sense of being the worldly concern ’s preferred brand in floriculture , the management with support of music director decide to continue with all operations in a normal manner . We neither cut down our labour force out nor did any pay cuts . Though we were only able to export 15 - 20 % of our production , we keep on with all operations . We were just write out and throwing away all stems that were not able to trade . This seriously affected our cash menstruum for the months of March and April . "

Management of ( Mzurri picking ( the code that was later identify ) Rosa Love Me ® Inger Kristine )

End of April : order started to go up - " Luckilywe had flowers"Fortunately , order started to increase by the last workweek of April . " This was mainly due to a identification number of Mother ’s Days that were celebrated in May in different countries . We were lucky to have flowers by then as those who had abandoned their cognitive process were out of output . The primary challenge was getting enough cargo blank space as the few melodic line freighter which were flying to Kenya had double their charges and also the electrical capacity was not enough . All in all , sales for the month of May to September were good as a bulk of economies were partially open . "

The second moving ridge hit - " cut-rate sale cast but not as dramatic"In the month of October , the second undulation of the Covid-19 was report in most countries . The sales dropped , though not as drastic as in March , he explain .

trust for the best - Christmas around thecornerWambua is relieved that the effect is not as unsound as was in March and he hop that the situation will not get worsened as we go towards Christmas . " This is one of our adept sales events , particularly for lily-white and red colours . "

" Tough times do n’t last , tough multitude do"“As I look back from the kickoff of the pandemic and the effect it has had on us farmers , I can only resolve that tough time never last but problematic the great unwashed do . "

For more information : Mzurrie Flowershttps://www.mzurrieflowers.co.ke/