From the BBC:
For the Elsingas, who came to Zambia from the Netherlands 14 years ago, the farm was a social enterprise as well as a business. They have constructed housing for their workers, and built a community centre and a school for 600 children on the premises. And they have provided year-round employment for nearly 200 workers. Now they will have to lay off all the workers at the rose farm, with only a few finding employment in the vegetable business which they hope to continue at another location.
But I'm sure those Zambians will be glad to make the sacrifice, after all, this goes in tandem with a reduction in non-essential flights:
Flower exporters are dependent on a secure supply chain, with the fresh flowers kept refrigerated and disease-free as they are moved quickly from the farm to markets in Europe within 48 hours. But in Zambia, transport costs are higher, because of the higher cost of petrol and jet fuel that has to be imported into this land-locked country. And the lack of a substantial scheduled air freight service has meant that they have had to charter flights to take their flowers to market.
It's a crowded field
3 hours ago
1 comments:
Errr? Didn't the Elsingas check all that sort of stuff out before they invested all that time, money and hope in this endeavour? Did they concoct even a basic business plan? You know with risk and cost comparisons with say, Kenya (another major flower exporter)?
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