In the last two years the flower sector has experienced more challenges than it has in the past decade. As if Covid-19 did not present enough challenges, freight space was another headache and now the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has hindered the flower market increasingly worrying the flower industry about the export of their products and their fate if this doesn’t stop soon.
Following the cancellation of export, a number of AEA members have continued to suffer the blunt and the most worrisome is how long the suspension of air traffic to and from Russia will take as no flights definitely mean no flowers.
Most of these flowers have ended up in the compose pit, others serving as animal feeds and what has been left of the employees is to maintain the crop hoping that things will turn around sooner or later.
Speaking with one of the Directors of the affected farms, he confirmed that the company relies on Russian market for 40% of its exports and should the problem persist, he may not be able to keep his employees as it will be hard to sustain their salaries and take care of the crop that ends up at the compost pit.
Flowers meant for export to Russia market left to the goats to feed on
Seeing Mothers’ Day is a few weeks away, it gives hope to know it will be an opportunity and time to recover what has been lost to the war but the light of the flower exporters is deemed by ‘what ifs?’, what if the war doesn’t stop? What if freight space continues being a challenge? What if…? What has however kept them is hope, hope for a better and promising tomorrow.
Another challenge is the measure to exclude various Russian banks from the international transfer system Swift which was announced and came into effect almost immediately. Although most flowers intended for International Women's Day were already sent before, the big question is whether those flowers can be paid for since the exclusion of Russian banks from Swift is also a major problem and waiting for payment has put a strain on the exporter’s cash flow.
Russia is largely seen as a growth market for Kenya’s growing exports and with the situation worsening by day, the fate of the affected flower companies remain unknown and the owners can only hope for peace to prevail between the two countries and normalcy restored.
