Flower growers in Africa are increasingly selling direct to buyers, cutting out the middlemen at the Netherlands’ centuries-old auction house co-op — the world’s biggest for flowers — Reuters reports.
The country grew rich selling tulip bulbs in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age and it is the second largest agricultural exporter after the U.S.
For decades the FloraHolland cooperative was a hub from which planeloads of flowers from around the world were distributed from vast, air-conditioned warehouses in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam airport.
The company says it distributes almost half of all flowers sold worldwide. In 2015 it reported sales of $5.13 billion US, mostly by matching growers and buyers at its early-morning daily auctions. But flower sales directly from growers to buyers have overtaken those sold through FloraHolland’s auctions, said FloraHolland CEO Lucas Vos in a Reuters interview.
Direct sales from co-op members who bypassed the auctions rose by 3.8 percent to $2.59 billion US in 2015. Auction sales stood at $2.37 billion, down 1 percent.
His company, Van den Berg Roses, still grows valuable and exotic flowers in the Netherlands, but cheaper roses are mostly grown in Africa and sold directly to big retailers such as the German discount chain Lidl or British supermarket giant Tesco,
which prefer fixed contracts to the daily fluctuation of the auction clock.
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Flower Growers In Africa Gaining Dominance Over Netherlands In Global Trade
Flower growers in Africa are increasingly selling direct to buyers, cutting out the middlemen at the Netherlands’ centuries-old auction house co-op — the world’s biggest for flowers — Reuters reports.
The country grew rich selling tulip bulbs in the 17th century during the Dutch Golden Age and it is the second largest agricultural exporter after the U.S.
For decades the FloraHolland cooperative was a hub from which planeloads of flowers from around the world were distributed from vast, air-conditioned warehouses in Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam airport.
The company says it distributes almost half of all flowers sold worldwide. In 2015 it reported sales of $5.13 billion US, mostly by matching growers and buyers at its early-morning daily auctions. But flower sales directly from growers to buyers have overtaken those sold through FloraHolland’s auctions, said FloraHolland CEO Lucas Vos in a Reuters interview.
Direct sales from co-op members who bypassed the auctions rose by 3.8 percent to $2.59 billion US in 2015. Auction sales stood at $2.37 billion, down 1 percent.
in Africa these days, said Arie van den Berg, a second generation Dutch rose grower
who has shifted the bulk of his production to Kenya and China, NewYorkTimes reports.
His company, Van den Berg Roses, still grows valuable and exotic flowers in the Netherlands, but cheaper roses are mostly grown in Africa and sold directly to big retailers such as the German discount chain Lidl or British supermarket giant Tesco,
which prefer fixed contracts to the daily fluctuation of the auction clock.
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Wealthy South Africans Seeking Foreign Citizenship Doubles In 2016
The number of ultra high net worth South Africans seeking foreign citizenship or residence permits by investment has doubled in 2016, says Henley & Partners.
“It’s not like all those years ago when South Africans left to Australia. Now, South Africans are realising that they don’t physically have to pack up and go. They can make wise offshore investments and gain foreign passports and/or residence, and give their families more security at the same time,” said Sandra Woest, a senior partner at Henley & Partners local office.
According to Woest, 300 to 350 South Africans have approached the citizenship and residence planning firm over the past 12 months. She said this was an increase on the previous year’s queries but would not be drawn into detail as to how many people completed the process by securing either citizenship or residency abroad. She said 95% of the people she deals with do not wish to leave South Africa but rather view gaining foreign citizenship or residency as a “plan B” and a form of security against political and economic uncertainty.
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SA citizens need more visa-free deals to up global ranking
Cape Town – South Africa, which ranks 89th out of 161 on a new index that measures the quality of a nationality, should improve visa-free travel status for its citizens to increase its ranking.
That’s the message from Henley & Partners SA spokesperson Sandra Woest, who spoke to Fin24 about the release of Henley’s Quality of Nationality Index (QNI), which is the world’s first index to rank the quality of nationalities worldwide.
It explores internal factors (40% of index) like the scale of the economy, human development, peace and stability as well as external factors (60% of index) like visa-free travel and the ability to settle and work abroad without cumbersome formalities. It is these facts, Henley explains, that make one nationality better than another in terms of legal status in which to develop its citizens talents and business.
Germany tops the ranking, with the UK ranked at 11 and the US at 28. The Democratic Republic of Congo lies at the bottom of the list, with Afghanistan and the Central African Republic the lowly runners-up.
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Asylum seekers flock to SA as country battles unemployment
Cape Town – In the midst of staggeringly high unemployment figures, South Africa hosted more asylum seekers than any other country in the world at the end of 2015, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
In the first quarter of 2016, unemployment rose to 26.7%, from 24.5% in the fourth quarter of last year. This translates to more than 5 million people in South Africa who are actively seeking employment. The figure excludes millions of job seekers who have given up looking for work. If this group is added to the unemployment figures the rate would be close to 37%.
The report showed that the number of asylum-seekers at the end of 2014 in South Africa is now estimated to be 1 057 600. Although there hasn’t been a comparable increase in 2015 – the number of new applications in 2015 was relatively low at 62 200 – there was a statistical adjustment in reporting asylum-seeking figures that means that South Africa hosted more asylum-seekers than any other country at the end of 2015.
According to the UN report, more than half (54%) of all refugees across the world came from just three countries – the Syrian Arab Republic (4.9m), Afghanistan (2.7m) and Somalia (1.1m). South Africa currently hosts 41 500 Somali refugees.
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