A flower farm[Photo/courtesy]A regional farm input seller has been honoured with the Supplier Non-perishable Award at the Sixth International Flower Trade and Expo (IFTEX) held in Nairobi this week.Elgon Kenya has been consistently supplying fertiliser and farm chemicals to flowers growers for close to 100 years across five African countries.Bimal Kantaria, the company’s director, said besides Kenya, they also supply farm products to Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia.“Initially, we began supplying the fertiliser to Oserian and Sulmak, which later became Karuturi. We have tremendously grown as the flower industry grows,” said Kantaria, adding that they have been supplying the Ethiopian flower industry with fertilisers and farm chemicals for the last 10 years.He, however, pointed out that the government involvement in subsiding fertiliser has disrupted the market.“It may be a good thing for smallholder farmers because they are getting the farm inputs at lower costs but it discourages the private sector input since we also have to lower prices to sell at the cost of subsidised fertilisers, which is not profitable,” said Kantaria.“We will continue to unveil new products as we ensure we meet our clients’ needs,” he said.The flower industry has a long chain of stakeholders from breeders to propagators and then the growers.“As propagators, our work is to acquire cultivars from breeders and then propagate for the farmer. This depends on what the farmer wants, “says Andrew Ndung’u of Stokman Rozen Kenya ltd, flower propagators.

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