Goldsuite’s first customer in Kenya, Timaflor, is expanding with a new rose nursery at 2550 metres. The new farm, Altima, is slightly higher than the main farm called Timaflor (2400 metres) but it makes a real difference to quality with a small reduction in numbers.
Rose nursery Timaflor was founded by Simon van der Burg senior near Timau in 2006. The company now has 116 hectares and employs more than 1400 employees. The addition of the extra 10 hectares now and a further 10 hectares in future at Altima will add another 350 employees. Both Simon senior and junior are well known in the international rose industry as perfectionists and the farm and quality of their product is testament to this. So for Goldsuite, to have our products prove themselves on Timaflor is a feather in our cap.
Until recently, the stems were always sold in Aalsmeer, but the flowers of Altima will only be auctioned in Rijnsburg, Simon van der Burg junior: “We grow for wholesale – not many types and in large quantities – and for that you have to be in Aalsmeer. There are also large buyers in Rijnsburg, and the buying power has been growing significantly in the past years, but at the same time there has always been more room for the smaller and more exclusive parties. In the past years, we exclusively spoiled Aalsmeer, and now we are going to spoil Rijnsburg.”
Just as in Aalsmeer, there is an exclusive cooperation with Fresco Flowers in Rijnsburg with both companies working together for many years. Obviously a good handling agent in the Netherlands is essential for any grower in Kenya.
Timaflor began by purchasing EzyFlow Gypsum on a trial basis to try to rectify a sodium problem. With the success of that trial Timaflor has gone commercial with Gypsum and subsequently with EzyFlow Calbud, EzyFlow Trace and SoluSOLVE.
The Nutrian range of products is distributed exclusively in Kenya by Dudutech.
Adapted from the article that appeared on www.floraldaily.com 4th December 2018