European winter chills fresh produce demand - Business Daily Africa

European winter chills fresh produce demand - Business Daily Africa


Extreme winter conditions in Europe — the worst in five years — are causing jitters within the Kenya’s horticulture industry because of a significant cut in outdoor activities that has stymied orders for exports for the high season that runs between February and May.
While December falls within the cyclic winter season in Europe, flowers, fruits and vegetable exporters say cold temperatures have hit the purchase of flowers and hindered transportation of fresh produce from the main airports to the hinterland, mostly served by trains and trucks.

Various reports appearing on the international press indicate that snowstorms and subfreezing temperatures have persisted across Europe in the last two weeks, leaving a trail of destruction to property and life and forcing potential buyers to stay indoors.

In some instances, authorities have issued airlines with orders to cut the number of flights per day, sending shock waves among Kenyan growers who rely heavily on aviation as the mode of transport to get fresh produce to Europe on time.

There have also been reports of transport authorities in some EU countries ordering trains to stop plying certain channels in Europe, raising fears of possible delay of Kenyan vegetables and fruits to get to the final consumers.

“This December has been a very difficult period. Most of us have been forced to halt flower deliveries to Europe until the weather improves because at the moment there is literally nobody to transport flowers to the other end,” Mrs Rose Wahome, a director at the Nairobi-based Mosi Branan Flowers told Business Daily.

While flower farmers may still have peak sales of Valentine Day and Mothers Day – the two occasions that account for 30 per cent of export sales — to reverse their falling fortunes, fruits and vegetable exporters count every single day — between September and March next year – that their produce does not get to the market as constituting significant loss.

The Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) says the winter season is usually the industry’s peak season accounting for 65 per cent of all the fruits and vegetables exported to Europe

“This period is normally the most important time in the industry’s calendar when our exporters are able to establish long term sales contracts.

The cold weather in Europe ensures there are no domestic supplies of fruits and vegetables from Europe to compete with our produce,” said the FPEAK Chief Executive Officer, Dr Stephen Mbithi.

At some point just before the Christmas day, the weather shock almost spilled into the country, triggering a wave of panic through the industry as word went round that Kenya Airways would not fly a cargo plane carrying 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce to Europe after an airport black out blamed on poor weather.

The plane later took off after a speedy assurance by the airport authority that all was under control.

At farm level, bad weather in Europe comes at a particularly inopportune time just when the blooms were blossoming following the return of rains in mid November after a prolonged dry spell dating back to 2007. “We just started experiencing good exports of fruits and vegetables to Europe from mid last month as farms started receiving good (El Nino) rains and most economies of Europe also started showing signs of recovery,” said Dr Mbithi.

Figures released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday indicate that export of cut flowers, vegetables, and fruits – Kenya’s leading horticultural exports - decreased to 18,500, 17,000 and 5,000 tonnes in the third quarter of 2009 compared to 19,300, 19,600 and 5,200 tonnes respectively during the same quarter of 2008.

But flower farmers see extreme European weather as a double tragedy, coming at a time when most offices which usually buy blooms on a daily basis locally for decorative purposes are also closed for December holidays.

Generally, industry players expect this year’s performance to be better than last year when depressed demand in Europe caused the first drop in an industry that has steadily been growing at a robust annual rate of 20 per cent since late 1990s.