Horticulture hit hard as Europe airspace crisis persists

By Antony Gitonga

Today is ‘black Monday’ for tens of flower farmers in Naivasha who will begin destroying flowers worth millions of shillings, due to the current flight cancellations to Europe.

This came as report from the Kenya Flower Council indicated that the sector had lost Sh616 million ($8m) last week, with fears that the figures could rise further.

With the last shipment having been made on Wednesday last week, disillusioned farmers admitted that they faced closure if the current problem continued.

According to one of the leading farmer in Naivasha, Jack Kneppers from Maridadi Flower Farm, they were losing Sh1.5m every day.

A grader in Maridadi flower farm in Naivasha prepares roses in the farm. Due to flight cancellation in Europe, the sector has lost Sh616 million in the four days. Photo: Antony Gitonga

"Our cold stores are filled to capacity and we have no alternative but to start destroying some of the roses on Monday (today)," he said.

"We are producing between 160,000-180,000 stems of roses daily and we do not have space to store them as of now,"

The Dutch-owned farm has 85 hectares of roses and produces 65 million stems of roses annually, all of which are exported to Holland.

Kneppers said the cancellation could not have come at a worse time, as farms were gearing up for Mothers day in three weeks.

He, however, said he would not be laying off workers because production would go on despite the current crisis.

South Europe

"We have 600 workforce and they shall continue with their job until the current issue is over."

He admitted that the farms had considered using South Europe to fly in their flowers but discarded the idea due to the high cost involved.

"The idea was considered but we don’t have facilities like cooling stores and trucks and it would be such a long and expensive journey."

Kneppers said that quality of the flowers in cold store could deteriorate as the crisis continued, and once flights resumed, it would be also hard to ship out all the production in stores.

Speaking on phone Kenya Flower Council CEO, Jane Ngige, said that the sector had lost Sh616 million in the four days.

"We are losing Sh154 million ($2m) per day, and this will increase as we are not sure when flights to Europe will resume."

She added that farmers were no longer ferrying flowers to the airport but were harvesting and destroying them as the stores were filled up.

"Though no farm has closed down, some workers will have to go on leave as the farmers reorganise themselves," she said.

In a statement in Saturday, Kenya Airways CEO, Titus Naikuni, said that flight to parts of Europe had been cancelled.

"Kenya Airways would like to confirm to its passengers, customers and the public all flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris are cancelled," said the statement.

The closure of the European air space resulting from Icelandic volcanic dust drifting towards Europe has hit the aviation and flower industry in Kenya hard.

Closed airspace

The airspace was closed on Saturday in 21 European countries, including Britain Germany, northern France and northern Italy.

"British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Kenya Airways planes to London have been parked," Mr Dominic Ngigi, KAA spokesperson, said in a statement.