Cut-Flower Industry in Kenya and China

choi

Kenya’s flower trade | Leaving on a Jet Plane; The long journey of those special stems. Economist, Feb 6, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/mi ... s-leaving-jet-plane

Note:
(a) "on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya. The fertile Rift Valley soil, warm days and cool nights make for perfect flower-growing conditions."

Lake Naivasha
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Naivasha
(freshwater; outside the town of Naivasha; The name derives from the local Maasai name Nai'posha, meaning "rough water" because of the sudden storms which can arise)

(b) "Its cut-flower exports increased 12-fold to 137,000 tonnes between 1988 and 2014 as buyers realised it was cheaper, and counter-intuitively greener, to fly blooms thousands of miles than to heat Dutch greenhouses. More than 30% of the European Union’s cut-flower imports now come from Kenya. Most are roses.  After being cut from inside the pale, plastic greenhouses crouched by the lakeside, the thorny stems are stripped of excess leaves and packaged * * * The [cut-flower] industry is one of Kenya’s biggest foreign-exchange earners, alongside tea, tourism and remittances."
(i) Kenya "lies between latitudes 5°N and 5°S."  en.wikipedia.org
(ii) Google town of) Naivasha and you will learn
(A) its latitude and longitude are 0.72°S, 36.43°E, respectively;
(B) "The warmest month of the year is March, with an average temperature of 18.4°C. July has the lowest average temperature of the year. It is 15.7°C."

But record highs in January/February are around 27°C, and record lows are about 8°C (the latter makes a greenhouse necessary just in case).

(c) "For many farms this is the busiest time of year—Britain’s Mother’s Day and Women’s Day in Russia come just three weeks after Valentine’s."
(i) Mother's Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day
(In 1912, [American] Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day"/ As the United States holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honoring motherhood, such as Mothering Sunday ]the fourth Sunday in Lent] in the United Kingdom)
(ii) International Women's Day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day
(section 1 History: " In 1914 International Women's Day was held on March 8, possibly because that day was a Sunday, and now it is always held on March 8 in all countries"/ a non-working day in Soviet Union starting 1965), after 1949 "women in China given a half-day off")

(d) China
(i) Zhu Wenqian, Flower Trade to Power Yunnan Province's Fortunes. China Daily, Feb 14, 2015
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/ ... ontent_19589378.htm
("The province in Southwest China harvests an estimated 7 billion flowers each year worth 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) [total output], according to the Yunnan Flower Association. * * * In the first half of 2014, Yunnan exported 3,660 metric tons of flowers, accounting for 31 percent of the country's total flower exports, with a value of 110 million yuan")
(ii) Zhu Wenqian and Zeng Jun, Guiyang's Cut-Flower Export Blooming. China Daily, Feb 14, 2015
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bus ... ontent_19589686.htm
("Last year, Homeway exported 13 million chrysanthemums to Japan, at an average wholesale price of 51.5 yen (43 cents) each")