Rivals eye EU flower market as pact delays

Kenyan growers have traditionally beaten their rivals to the European Union market. FILE 

By George Omondi

Flower growers face a critical test as key rivals begin to show interest in Kenya’s traditional markets ahead of plans by European states to introduce taxes on the produce.

For the first time since it was launched three years ago, this year’s International Flower Trade Expo (IFTEX) to be held in Nairobi on June 4, has attracted growers from South American states of Ecuador and Colombia.

Ecuador, Colombia and Kenya — in that order — are the top three flower producing nations of the world and have been battling for control of the vast European market.

Ecuador-based Eternal Flowers tops the list of the Southern American players angling for Kenya’s customers and it has already booked exhibition spaces at the Oshwal Centre, the venue for the event.

Stiff competition

“We expect buyers from more than 56 countries. Kenya has a well-established flower industry but it has to be careful not to lose its position amid stiff competition,” said Dick van Raamsdonk, president of Holland-based HPP Exhibitions, the organiser of the expo.

The IFTEX has become an international networking forum for buyers, seedling breeders, logistics firms and input suppliers in the flower industry.

The Kenyan growers, who have traditionally beaten their rivals to the European Union market by riding on the preferential market access terms that European states handed to its former colonies, are already crying foul.

The tax-and-quota-free trade with EU is set to lapse in October 1 should the EAC fail to conclude the long dragging Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).