Chain of Life Network links research and practice in new format, within new partnership
The Chain of Life Network is back in a streamlined, updated format with new university partners. The network is an online resource of floral production, post-harvest care and handling, and marketing information designed for every stage of the supply chain from breeders and growers to retailers. It was initiated in 2002 by George Staby, a former Ohio State University professor and researcher who heads the Perishables Research Organization in Elk Grove, CA.
Kenya’s flower standards to be set by end of 2015
The Kenya Flower Council flower announced that it will have a certification program in place for all players in the industry by the end of 2015. Jane Ngige, the council’s chief executive officer, told a news conference in Nairobi that the move will help the Kenyan flowers to meet the stringent rules of the importing nations.
All exporters of flowers in Kenya should demonstrate compliance to international standards by the end of 2015, Ngige said, as reported in a business newsletter. She said the Dutch government has provided $400,000 for implementation of the program.
Ball, Walter, Raska among SAF honorees at annual convention in Phoenix
Anna Ball, owner and chief executive officer of Ball Horticultural Co.; Virginia R. Walter, a professor and researcher at California Polytechnic State University; and Jerome Raska, a floral designer, speaker and teacher; were among those honored at the Society of American Florists annual convention in Phoenix in late September.
World Floral Expo 2014 to tour U.S. and Canada
The World Floral Expo, which has been held in New York for the past two years and was in Miami for 10 years before that, will tour the United States offering shows in three cities on three days during one week in 2014, according to Dick van Raamsdonk, president of HPP Exhibitions Inc. in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which sponsors the annual show.
Laura D. Shinall now heads Syndicate Sales, family business begun in 1946
Laura Demaree Shinall has been named president of Syndicate Sales Inc., the family floral hardgoods supplier in Kokomo, IN, started by her grandparents in 1946. She succeeds her father, Del Demaree, who continues as chairman.
A graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, Laura Shinall has been in the floral industry for three decades with experience in retail and wholesale florist operations. She began her career as a wholesale floral supply manager at Kennicott Bros. Co. in its Milwaukee, WI, office.
Importer: Focus on price limits Fair Trade flower sales
“Supermarket buyers pay extremely close attention to margins and are catering to America’s very price-sensitive consumers,” said Alaina Paradise, owner of One World Flowers in Denver, stating why she thinks Fair Trade flowers have not caught on in supermarkets here. Since 2007, One World has imported Fair Trade flowers exclusively, currently from farms in Ecuador.
New PMA Floral Council head seeks to offer year-round value
The incoming head of the Floral Council of the Produce Marketing Association sees the 30-member group’s main task in the year ahead as developing a workable program that can be carried out by volunteers while the council builds upon its success at the PMA Fresh Summit and attracts the financial support to carry out the program.
Amazon enters cut-flower delivery business with line of bouquets
After experimenting with third-party vendors in the flower-delivery business, Amazon.com appears interested in expanding into that area itself. A 17-year industry veteran said the move “only once again highlights how important it is for supermarket floral operations to develop and promote their own online floral selling programs.”
Amazon, an online retail giant and Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, quietly entered the rapidly expanding online floral market in early August with its own line of fresh-cut flower bouquets, called the Amazon Curated Flower Collection.
Hawaii floral sales drop for fifth year
Sales of Hawaii’s floriculture and nursery products declined for the fifth year in a row, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The annual review for 2012 found overall floriculture sales of $69.1 million dropped by one percent from 2011. Sales have dropped since a record high of $108.7 million in the pre-recession year of 2007.
FloralHolland sued over rates
FloralHolland is in Dutch with a group of irate flower and plant traders from The Netherlands. The group has filed a lawsuit against FloraHolland, according to the Dutch wholesale florist association VGB. Their demand is that the pending increase in the auction clock rates for 2014, which the flower auction set without the seemingly required agreement from its trader clients, be struck down.