How Brexit is affecting Kenya's role in the global flower market, with Chris Kulei from Sian Roses

This week we're speaking with a big player in one of Kenya's largest industries: flower farming.

Horticulture is one of the biggest sectors in the country's economy, and 60% of all the world's roses are grown in Kenya.

This is for a number of reasons, which I discuss with Director of Sian Roses, Chris Kulei.

Kenya has a number of natural features such as high altitude, and access to water which, along with low labour costs means they can produce roses for a tenth of the price of elsewhere such as Holland and Israel.

Before our interview, Chris took me on a tour of their 45 hectare farm just out of Nairobi going from the initial grafting of new roses, through the various stages before being picked, packed and put on a pallet for export.

You can see some pictures of this by heading to the show notes on www.theeastafricabusinesspodcast.com

The overarching concept with growing flowers is that it's a volume game.

The global market, which is centered in Holland, is incredibly efficient and means margins for flowers are very thin, and millions of stems are traded every day.

As such, companies like Sian Roses need big capex and efficiency savings to stay competitive. Indeed, they currently focus just on roses in order to maintain a high quality.

We discuss the many players in the global supply chain, how very often they'll get to name a new rose, trends in the industry towards sustainability, and how Brexit is causing all kinds of confusion at the auction house.

There's so much interesting stuff here I really hope you enjoy.

READ MORE AT:
https://theeastafricabusinesspodcast.com/2019/10/10/how-brexit-is-affecting-kenyas-role-in-the-global-flower-market-with-chris-kulei-from-sian-roses/