Valentine Readiness, Porini premium roses a cut above the rest

Valentine season is here with us. This occasion globally is considered a major floral day. This is the time when red roses are on high demand and flower growers are extremely busy to meet the surging demand of roses.

Porini flowers in Molo, Nakuru County has not been left out either. The company which is a sister farm to Isinya Roses stands out as the only farm in Kenya on the highest altitude of 2865m producing premium quality roses with longer stems and bigger head sizes.

They are cashing on Ever red variety on this conspicuous occasion. This red flower depict a strong sense of cupid presence and has proven itself as among the best variety in Kenya and has good qualities of head size and thick stem lengths as well as it fetches good price in the market.

Porini flowers prides itself as the best producers of this variety in the country hence has witnessed increased orders from clients who have opted out of Colombia and Ecuador.

“Kenya has rolled out good standards which have made us to compete with countries like Colombia and Ecuador in terms of quality production,” said Ananth Kumar, Head of Marketing for the two farms.

Other varieties listed on their valentine bouquet are Madam red and Rhodos which are unique variety grown at Isinya but achieves big head size and are branded Porini.

Besides targeting Valentine’s Day, the company also targets UK Mothers Day which comes few weeks after Valentine, Easter and the International Mothers Day which comes in May. By targeting this these major occasions, the company aims at making more sales.

”We started preparing flushes for UK Mothers Day simultaneously with Valentine. Porini being a high altitude the flushes takes 77 days and at Isinya it takes 55 days. During this long days of flushes at Porini, the crop continues to feed thus resulting in bigger heads and thicker stems,” he said.

As a consequence of Valentine’s Day, prices of flowers normally triples to cope up with the overwhelming demand. The Company has already confirmed receiving 50% orders of their niche varieties to their high end market in the auction and direct market. This orders are expected to increase as Valentine day approaches and they have planted big volumes of flowers to meet any order that will be placed.

”Last year’s Valentine  was good as we achieved  our expected production and managed supply to all confirmed orders,” Ananth Kumar revealed. The farm has 18 varieties of flowers in production on their 28ha piece of land and hoarding an average of 80,000 cut stems a day to the market. ”The name Porini is derived from the bushy state of the land we got it. We took it up and started cultivation in 2004. We are cultivating all good color mix of flowers, whites, ranges,purple, pink and bicolors,” Kumar said.

The company compliments and cares for the environment within which it works as they play an active role in planting trees and caring for the ecosystems that surrounds them. Both Porini and Isinya Roses to date have planted over 15,000 trees at both farms. The trees have become home to various varieties of birdlife, adding natural life to the farm.

On their way forward, the company is looking to expanding to an extra 5 hectares of assorted varieties as the market expansion trend demands.

Currently, they have introduced alstroemerias, gypsophila and chrysanthemums to give their customers unique bouquets.

They are also in the plans of introducing rail transportation method of moving their roses from the greenhouse to the pack house, to reduce damage of flowers during transportation.