Friday, February 1, 2008
Whar a Difference a Day Makes...
Driving away from my hotel the rain was still drizzling and I encountered some very heavy fog in South Quito. Suddenly a ray of sunshine flooded the valley to my left illuminating the sprawl of the outskirts of the city. It was a welcome portent of what truned out to be a glorious hot and sunny day in the principal southern rose-growing regions of Ecuador in the province of Cotopaxi.
Indeed as the Pan-American highway descended the foothills of the Cotopaxi volcano the entire valley opened up in full sun with nary a cloud in the sky. The view was spectacular and I could see the Chimborazo volcano resplendent in its snow covered peak, and further to the south the Tunguragua volcano that was spewing hot smoke from it's crater. It was only 8:00 am and yet the sun was already scorching.
What a difference a day makes, I thought. Well, that and being a 100 miles further south from Cayembe.
A little further south I stopped for gas and saw that the Cotopaxi volcano was clearly visible, with no cloud cover. Driving further south, to the southernmost farm that we buy roses from, that of Nevado-Naranjo, I had my first close-up glimpse of a visibly active volcano: Tunguragua with hot gases rising and then being dispersed by the upper winds. I say glimpse, because by the time I had finished checking the roses at Nevado, the volcano was obscured by clouds.
The roses at this farm are excellent and I was able to move fairly rapidly to the next plantation.
I visited five farms today and all are on time and of very good quality, including Agrirose and Ecuanrose.
At Ecuanrose, a plantation of some 40 hectares divede between two locations, was in fulll Valentines production. Conveyor belts were going non-stop, as bunches of hand-packed roses stream towards the coolers, ready to be packed into boxes the following day. The process is as follows: The roses are cut at the optimum cutting-stage, depending on the client, and then carried to the packing shed. They are carried in nets, each containing 30 to 50 stems. In the post-harvest warehouse they are put in a hydrating solution until they are ready to be graded. At this time roses with defects are set aside, and only the premium blooms are packed. That is the theory, but at a busy time like Valentine's errors are 
made, and subpar roses occasionally manage to find their way into the bunches. One of my tasks is to attempt to eliminate these mistakes, and I randomly inspect bunches to see how they have been packed. Obviously, with thousands of bunches being shipped, the excercise ends up being a reinforcement of our desires and wants and an opportunity to instruct how we need the product to be packed.
made, and subpar roses occasionally manage to find their way into the bunches. One of my tasks is to attempt to eliminate these mistakes, and I randomly inspect bunches to see how they have been packed. Obviously, with thousands of bunches being shipped, the excercise ends up being a reinforcement of our desires and wants and an opportunity to instruct how we need the product to be packed.Once the bunches are packed they stream down the conveyor belt, where they go through a quality review and are then placed in hydrating solutions and held overnight in the coolers to stabilize the roses so they will be ready for the stress of shipping. Any time that you hear of roses being shipped the same day that they are harvested, you now know is a complete mis-representation of the facts.
The following day the orders are picked and filled according to the customers' needs and then packed into boxes ready for transport to Quito.
I left the south very upbeat and positive, and combined with the assurances of our farms in the north, now feel that our pre-booked orders will be delivered as programmed. I drive back to Quito, in preparation for the next task, which is to check the roses as they arrive in the evening at the freight forwarder's coolers.
# posted by Mayesh International @ 2:56 PM 
