In General the Dutch summarize this valentine as good but not great. It turns out that many wholesalers were stuck with
flowers after the valentine, and with many people taking off, for a quick vacation the market was under pressure after the
holiday.
The up side is that most of the flowers were of excellent quality, with very little signs of "old" flowers that were
stocked at farm level.
The Dutch auctions report a rise of 10% more flowers than last year, with most flowers from Dutch growers. Prices were
similar to last year.
Here are a few examples. All prices in Euro
1 Euro = 1.24350
US Dollar
Flower 2/10 2/11 2/12
rose big 0.94 0.96 0.97
rose small 0.21 0.199 0.20
Gerbera 0.39 0.44 0.41
bayb's 0.34 0.38 0.34
Lisi's 0.47 0.49 0.38
Holland the busy days were 10-12 feb.
France heavy trading especially in roses.
Spain were completely surprised because valentine is not considered such a big thing.
Italy did everything wrong. The wholesalers waited till the last minute, in hope the prices will fall, it did'nt...
as you saw on the table, Italy became hysteric with prices jumping, to unbelievable prices.
Austria, good sales prior to valentine but a cold front and strong snow falls completely halted sales on the week
of valentine.
Switzerland good behavior, good earnings
Germany- sales were low; wholesalers complained that prices were to high at the auctions, so sales were not good.
England relatively cheaper flowers from Colombia made strong earnings for the wholesalers, especially in
red carnations.
Smmol reports that in the east coast U.S. sales were strong, with abundance of flowers. Quality was very good this year.
All the shops we deal with were extremely satisfied. there were a few pockets of disapointmnets especially in the Connecticut
area.
Eyal
It was an amazing open day here in the arava.
simply because two days prior to the event it rained. For two consecutive days after the event it rained
just because over 3000 farmers and gardeners visited and 120!!! companies put
up a display.
mainly because a lot of information exchanged hands.
New varities, new production methods, a lot of on hands solution for so many different types of challanges.
2 companies Hazera seeds and Amir agro-supplies even went as far as offering beer to all that visited them
wow a great day it was.
I displayed a few new technologies that I have been busy focusing on. The new gsm logger that I believe will have a very
positive impact on the agro-market.check it out at
www.tnl.comIts a system that sends relevant information to the farmers cellular phone. The "box" can be hooked up
to a thermometer in the greenhouse or in the fridge, it can be hooked up to,
a tension meter in the ground, or to any kind of control that outputs some kind of an electric current.To coling trucks,
generatirs, lights,etc, etc...
the box needs no electricity, it runs on batteries.
It sends information through sim technology, and the farmer can have the information stored as a map or graph, on an internet
site, and at critical stages receive an sms message to his cell phone
I also displayed the new cooling system I brought from Spain. This system will cool your greenhouse at a much cheaper
price that all other alternatives presently available. It will use the logger to get the info to the farmers.
Its nice to bring new technology to your friends and fellow farmers.
Eyal
