Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Rose Supply Tightens Up
Yesterday was a chicken consomme day, all day, and I am now very much recovered.
After our massive shipment from the night before, which went incredibly smoothly, and we were able to dispatch 870 fulls by air, leaving only some 50 boxes behind; last night was the complete opposite.
Every single farm, bar none, was later than scheduled and some farms did not arrive until midnight. Space on the airlines is incredibly tight, with some of them making trucks wait 36 hours to drop off. Our relationship with UPS certainly pays divdiends in times like this, as we are able to ship more cargo than we had allocated and the flights leave on time! We were also able to deliver to our airline later than their deadline, and we really needed that accomodation last night.
The rose situation in Ecuador is tight for the following reasons. Firstly, as I touched upon yesterday, many farms made a light pinch, or "cleaning" as it is called, and in some cases no pinch at all. Secondly the weather in most parts of Ecuador where the roses are grown has been atrocious, with the exception of the south. This affects supply substantially, depending on the farm. The top tier of farms such as Producnorte aka Greenrose have the technical expertise and financial wherewithal to make sure that they are able to grow and harvest roses in these trying conditions. Even so they cannot fulfill all our colors that we requested, but do come close. Farms of lesser quality, and who maybe cash-strapped cannot fight the diseases adequately and do not have the knowledge to manipulate the plants to produce more roses. In this case yields fall, and the product is often debilitated by disease.
Now, as the shipping days for the USA come to an end, Russia is starting up, and Europe starts on Thursday, so there is almost no let up in demand. I expect a lot of roses to come available on Sunday and Monday but for all practical purposes this is too late to get them to our warehouses in time for Valentine's day. Also because the Old World starts shipping there is no easing of cargo space either.
In many ways this is a similar scenario to last year, but as we all found out there ended up being plenty of roses available in the market. My understanding is that Colombia has shipped plenty of product to Miami, and due to inclement weather in the Northeast and Mid-West, which if it continues could cause Miami to dump into the West. Of course, this is speculation and if we focus on what we do best, we expect to have a good Valentine's, regardless of what else is going on.
Also of interest is that in the local newspapers, there have been many articles on roses that are exported, particularly the phenomenon of the huge demand for long roses in Russia. Also much discussed is the fact that exports to the USA have dropped substantially over the past few years.
In 2002 the USA received some 80% of all roses exported, and today that number is down to 50%. Naturally this change in distribution also makes the supply in general much tighter, and at Valentine's particularly so.
Tonight I expect to be another long night, with many farms even more tardy due to the traffic as Carnival comes to a close. Howver, I have done everything in my power to persuade growers to be here in as timely a fashion as possible.
Oh, and I am going to eat some solid food today.
# posted by Mayesh International @ 5:37 AM 
