It was a busy week for Floritec during the Chrysanthemum Week in Colombia. From August 29th until September 2nd there were five full days of interaction with visitors from every corner of the Americas. It was chrysanthemum galore at its best at the trials location Capiro in Medellín, Antioquia. This is what you should not have missed.
Floritec Chrysanthemum Trials 2022
The Floritec Chrysanthemum Trials in Colombia are part of one week full of attention for this popular flower. Chrysants rank among the top 3 flowers for ages, so they are a major factor in the floral industry. And they are no longer hiding in bouquets or floral arrangements anymore as a filler: Chrysanthemums want the spotlight!
Breeders like Floritec understand this and work in close collaboration with their growers to get closer to the market of florists, designers, and decision-makers in the industry. This is called 'customized breeding', a policy that lets the growers play a major part in the development of chrysanthemums. This way, a grower gets varieties that fit perfectly within its cultivation program and that perform best.
Floritec in Colombia
For five years now Floritec has been active in Colombia. The collaboration with Capiro is very fruitful for both the breeder and the grower. Colombia exports many flowers, also the increasingly popular chrysanthemums, to the USA. So, it was good to see for Floritec's Marketing & Communication Specialist Daphne Hoogeveen the huge interest of growers organizations from all over the Americas, including the US:
Daphne Hoogeveen:
"At the Capiro farm, we received over two hundred visitors this week from Colombia, Ecuador, the USA, and Costa Rica. The groups that came by were really big, often with 10 or 12 people. Commercial and technical people of the grower organizations."
Japanese Genetics in Colombia
This year was the first time Floritec was able to show its disbuds at the Chrysanthemum Trials in Colombia. After the takeover from leading Japanese chrysanthemum breeder Inochio Seikoen, Floritec got access to Japanese genetics. This opened global possibilities in further investigating which varieties grow optimally under various conditions on various continents.
Daphne Hoogeveen:
"We have tested and further selected the local conditions for three years. This resulted in a wonderful assortment of disbuds. We received a lot of positive reactions about this range in particular.
So, our disbuds attracted the most admiration. Especially the vintage version, one of my personal favorites. These disbuds are super suitable for the wedding market in the USA.
But the already established Santini Calimero series also looked very nice and uniform. Next to that series, our new Santini Okada was an instant hit, just like the unique bronze-orange spray Chrysanthemum Summerflame. Those are variants that no one else has."
Chrysanthemum Santini Okada
Chrysanthemum Santini Okada
Chrysanthemum Summerflame
Chrysanthemum SummerflameThe Growing Popularity of Colombian Chrysants
Chrysanthemums are a growing business for Colombian farmers. In every sense. According to the trade association Asocolflores, Colombia is currently leading in the production and export of chrysanthemum. Of the 7,700 ha of flowers in Colombia destined for export, 12% consists of chrysanthemum; so this concerns 924 ha. We're talking about 1.8 billion stems here! The vast majority (80%) of these are located in Antioquia, near Medellín.
Floritec invests steadily in Colombia to customize the demand of the market in the Americas for more, better, and prettier chrysanthemums. The team in Colombia will expand, and a location of their own is part of the planning for the near future, according to Daphne Hoogeveen. It looks like all the lights are on green for the further development of chrysants in Colombia.
