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Country file

rainfall zones ranging from

600 to some 1500mm/year.The growers have chosen their

plots based on where they

think temperature and air

humidity will be best. All

zones are frost-free and have

plenty of sunlight year round

because of their close proximi-

ty to the Equator.

An experimental area under

plastic is being set up to

observe how different rose

varieties and other ornamen-

tals perform in this new cli-mate. It should be operational

before the end of 2003. It is

hoped that this, together with

the Roses from Cear quality

stamp, will give the region a

competitive edge, compared

with the rest of the country.

Government roleTo encourage further develop-

ment the state is offering

incoming companies a guaran-

tee of public services up to the

farm gate, technical assistance

and tax exemption on ICMS

(an added value tax on import-

ed production materials which

is 17%). Carlos Matos, Cears

Secretary of Agriculture, also

explains that the land available

on Ibiapaba has been cata-

logued and growers can make

use of a geo-physic study to

help find the most suitable

areas for a given crop.Companies dont pay for any of

the services above, but it is nec-

essary for them to invest at least

R$ one million (US$0.33 mil-

lion) in their own projects for a

minimum period of four years.

As the rose acreage grows, it

is expected that the area for

other crops will also grow and

hence the suppliers interest in

the region. Besides helping the

local economy with more jobs,

the creation of a new exportsector is good news for a state

that has a per capita income

that is about half of the

national average.

The key for future business

growth is to achieve a critical

mass, but we are aware that the

creation of a whole new pro-

duction chain doesnt happen

overnight. The latest news is

that recent deals have been

signed for charter flights with

Martinair from Fortaleza toAmsterdam, improving the

transport part of the chain.

Currently only TAP and Varig

air carriers are used for export,

said Matos.

Niek Botden, of DynaChain,

a horticultural research consult-

ing company, is working on a

development program for the

floricultural sector in Cear.

Growth in volume together

with a guaranteed quality

which will increase visibility at

the Dutch auctions, will help

to get better air-freight prices

and is one of the main chal-

lenges ahead, he said.

However, the conversion of

the chain from production

driven to market driven is

much more important in the

long term than fighting freight

prices. For Cear its important

to produce what the market

wants, especially when the

chain is long and the costs to

reach the market are high,

said Botden.

The new rose farmsReijers Produo de Rosas

Ltda., belongs to Roberto

Reijers who started operations

in 2001. About 80% of its yearly

production is exported and its

own distribution centre in

Fortaleza handles the product

destined for the local market.

We have 109 employees and

for almost every worker this is

their first formal job so it was

hard at first to establish ideas

like work speed and quality

standard. Weekly meetings had

to be done to smooth things

out, says Paulo Paiva, general

manager at this facility in Cear.

Roses are produced on 5 ha

although more are being plant-

ed and new construction is

under-way. Gerberas cover 0.8

ha. The plastic houses are the

BrazilianGreenhouseand

some of the varieties grown

involve specific breeder/grower

agreements. All plants are

grown in 12 L pots filled with

coconut fibre and fertigation is

automated with a simple

time/flow controller. The aim

is have 30 to 40% drainage, all

of which is recycled and drain

samples are sent for analysis

every two weeks.

Ventilation is through fixed

openings in the roof and the

only climate control options

are a motorised shade screen

and sprinklers at ground level

to increase air humidity. Most

of the rain falls between

January and July, with very lit-

tle precipitation from August

ars op for exports

The Ibi apaba plateau star ts at 900m on it s eastern face and then slopes down

gradually westward.

Area to be built Company Company origin

20 ha Cearosa Brazil

20 ha Reijers Produo de Flores, Ltda. Brazil

30 ha Flor do Sol (part of the group Flores Magicas) Ecuador

10 ha Serra Flores (part of Flores de Cotopaxi) Ecuador

50 ha Agrofloricultura Reijers, Ltda. Brazil

Table 1: Companies and acreage of new flower farms in Cear

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to December. The company

recently installed custom-

designed software for pest

recording, adding an automat-

ed tool to a project that in

spite of its size still relies most-

ly on manual work.

Inside the 16C packing-

house a last check is made for

pests and diseases, which tend

to vary with the local climate.

Stems are cut to different

lengths but the quality is

always the same whether the

roses are going to the local

market or the Dutch auctions.

Cearosasowner Paulo

Selbach was responsible for

bringing the first rose opera-

tion to the area in 2000.

Cearosa has just 3ha of roses

and represents Lex+plants,

for which it has a showroom.

They are well adapted to our

conditions and accepted in the

international market, says

Selbach.

We focus on the Brazilian

market but we also have a

licensing agreement for the use

of these varieties, which allows

us to propagate them for our

neighbours.

Jullio Cantillo, originally from

Colombia, is Cearosas produc-

tion manager. He says, Experi-

menting was a must in thebeginning. For example, we

tried soil and hydroponics with

coconut dust. We made some

of our own plastic houses and

we bought others from two

suppliers and we still think air

movement is not ideal.

Sunlight is very intense here -

one variety I used to grow in

Colombia had a cycle of 90

days and here it takes 45 days.

We have tried shading as well as

an internal air misting to keep

the humidity up - its been four

months without rain now.

Cantillo says that they use the

lessons they learn as they

expand: the land for the next

1.5 ha block is already levelled.

Agrifloricultura Reijers Ltda.,

is a roses-only operation

owned by Geraldo Reijers, who

has been exporting to the USA,

Portugal and Argentina for sev-eral years already. He is build-

ing the first 2 ha now, and this

will expand to11 ha by the end

of 2004. The company plans to

add 5 ha per year after that.

Construction work began in

the spring and the first plant-

ing were due to be made in

September.

The main reason for the

company expansion in Cear

instead of in the state of So

Paulo (SP) was simply higher

profitabili ty. One hectare here

yields the same as 4 ha in SP.

The white Tineker for example

is highly productive, giving

130/m2 in SP, whereas here

more than 200/m2 have been

achieved. With a new stem

every 45 days we get close to

the Dutch yields. Also, there isno dormancy caused by the

colder and cloudier weather of

the south, where winter nights

at 5C are common.

Another big reason is that

due to Cears official position

of supporting only the growers

who pay plant royalties, breed-

ers who are active around the

world are now interested in sup-

plying new varieties here. That

was possible due to the political

will to get it done, in SP the per-

centage of the economy that is

based on roses is minimal.

Reijers has done some things

differently from the start: he

picked the drier part of the

plateau; uses coconut dust in

plastic troughs not pots; erect-

ed a rounded sawtooth plastic

house with a 1.8m-wide side

venting at the top, then covere

it with a blue Israeli plastic. H

is also building 1 ha of shade-

house with different types of

covering materials and first

year results will determine the

type to be used in the future.

On the drive back to

Fortaleza it is evident thatmore will have to be invested

in transport as the highways

are unevenly kept. At the cap

tals newly renovated airport

the first and so far only air-

port cold room dedicated

exclusively to flowers in Braz

was inaugurated last year by

the governor. It is meant only

for transit, not storage, so

growers bring their flowers

here when the plane has bee

scheduled. This further sup-

ports a sector that is believed

to employ around 15 people

per ha.

For furt her i nformation email

Mauricio C. Mathi as at

mauriciomathias@hotmail.com

In the beginni ng Cearosa experimented wit h several

di fferent product ion systems.

Cearosa focuses mainly on the Brazili an market.