FlowerTECH2003, vol. 6/no. 6 18 www.HortiWorld.

nl
New rose area in Brazil ge
T
he state of Cear on the
northeast coast of Brazil
is not recognised for its
flower production. But, over
the last few years growers have
been spurred by the natural
advantages such as good cli-
mate, geographic location - it
is only seven to eight hours
away by plane from both
Miami and the Dutch flower
auctions - and the devaluation
of the Brazilian currency (R$
3.35 = 1). They have started
to establish farms and some
have already begun to export
roses to Europe.
The state is presently
harvesting from 10 ha of rose
greenhouses and it should
increase to 20 ha by the end of
the year, according to
Fernando Martins, trade pro-
motion director for Seagri,
Cears Bureau for Irrigated
Agriculture.
We know how much is on
the way due to a pre-action
protocol each company has to
present in order to obtain all
incentives given by the state.
This includes details of their
targeted acreage and how fast
they plan to build.
The companies and acreage,
which will yield varying yearly
increases, are show in Table1.
Ibiapaba plateau
The new rose farms that are
geared to exporting have been
built on a plateau area,
Ibiapaba, which is some
350km west of Fortaleza, the
state capital. The altitude
ranges from 400 to 900m and
it has a microclimate distinct
from the rest of the state. With
plenty of water, cooler night
temperatures, and a gently
sloped landscape it is more
suitable to large projects than
areas closer to the capital,
which are too hilly.
The plateau has some 10,000
ha of irrigatable land and is
roughly divided into three
An ideal climate and state incentives are
helping the north east of Brazil develop into
a flower export region.
By Mauricio C. Mathias
At ReijersProduo deRosas, rosesaregrown in troughswhich arecovered in plastic.
Thegreenhousesof ReijersProduo deRosas.
Theconstruction for theshade-houseisthesameasfor theplastic-covered house.
If thelatter ischosen, onlythecover needsto bereplaced.
ReijersProduo deRosashasbeen diversifyingwith gerberas.
FlowerTECH2003, vol. 6/no. 6 19 www.HortiWorld.nl
Country file
rainfall zones ranging from
600 to some 1500mm/year.
The growers have chosen their
plots based on where they
think temperature and air
humidity will be best. All
zones are frost-free and have
plenty of sunlight year round
because of their close proximi-
ty to the Equator.
An experimental area under
plastic is being set up to
observe how different rose
varieties and other ornamen-
tals perform in this new cli-
mate. It should be operational
before the end of 2003. It is
hoped that this, together with
the Roses from Cear quality
stamp, will give the region a
competitive edge, compared
with the rest of the country.
Government role
To encourage further develop-
ment the state is offering
incoming companies a guaran-
tee of public services up to the
farm gate, technical assistance
and tax exemption on ICMS
(an added value tax on import-
ed production materials which
is 17%). Carlos Matos, Cears
Secretary of Agriculture, also
explains that the land available
on Ibiapaba has been cata-
logued and growers can make
use of a geo-physic study to
help find the most suitable
areas for a given crop.
Companies dont pay for any of
the services above, but it is nec-
essary for them to invest at least
R$ one million (US$0.33 mil-
lion) in their own projects for a
minimum period of four years.
As the rose acreage grows, it
is expected that the area for
other crops will also grow and
hence the suppliers interest in
the region. Besides helping the
local economy with more jobs,
the creation of a new export
sector is good news for a state
that has a per capita income
that is about half of the
national average.
The key for future business
growth is to achieve a critical
mass, but we are aware that the
creation of a whole new pro-
duction chain doesnt happen
overnight. The latest news is
that recent deals have been
signed for charter flights with
Martinair from Fortaleza to
Amsterdam, improving the
transport part of the chain.
Currently only TAP and Varig
air carriers are used for export,
said Matos.
Niek Botden, of DynaChain,
a horticultural research consult-
ing company, is working on a
development program for the
floricultural sector in Cear.
Growth in volume together
with a guaranteed quality
which will increase visibility at
the Dutch auctions, will help
to get better air-freight prices
and is one of the main chal-
lenges ahead, he said.
However, the conversion of
the chain from production
driven to market driven is
much more important in the
long term than fighting freight
prices. For Cear its important
to produce what the market
wants, especially when the
chain is long and the costs to
reach the market are high,
said Botden.
The new rose farms
Reijers Produo de Rosas
Ltda., belongs to Roberto
Reijers who started operations
in 2001. About 80% of its yearly
production is exported and its
own distribution centre in
Fortaleza handles the product
destined for the local market.
We have 109 employees and
for almost every worker this is
their first formal job so it was
hard at first to establish ideas
like work speed and quality
standard. Weekly meetings had
to be done to smooth things
out, says Paulo Paiva, general
manager at this facility in Cear.
Roses are produced on 5 ha
although more are being plant-
ed and new construction is
under-way. Gerberas cover 0.8
ha. The plastic houses are the
Brazilian Greenhouseand
some of the varieties grown
involve specific breeder/grower
agreements. All plants are
grown in 12 L pots filled with
coconut fibre and fertigation is
automated with a simple
time/flow controller. The aim
is have 30 to 40% drainage, all
of which is recycled and drain
samples are sent for analysis
every two weeks.
Ventilation is through fixed
openings in the roof and the
only climate control options
are a motorised shade screen
and sprinklers at ground level
to increase air humidity. Most
of the rain falls between
January and July, with very lit-
tle precipitation from August
ars op for exports
TheIbiapaba plateau startsat 900mon itseastern faceand then slopesdown
graduallywestward.
Area to be built Company Company origin
20 ha Cearosa Brazil
20 ha Reijers Produo de Flores, Ltda. Brazil
30 ha Flor do Sol (part of the group Flores Magicas) Ecuador
10 ha Serra Flores (part of Flores de Cotopaxi) Ecuador
50 ha Agrofloricultura Reijers, Ltda. Brazil
Table 1: Companies and acreage of new flower farms in Cear
FlowerTECH2003, vol. 6/no. 6 21 www.HortiWorld.nl
Country file
to December. The company
recently installed custom-
designed software for pest
recording, adding an automat-
ed tool to a project that in
spite of its size still relies most-
ly on manual work.
Inside the 16C packing-
house a last check is made for
pests and diseases, which tend
to vary with the local climate.
Stems are cut to different
lengths but the quality is
always the same whether the
roses are going to the local
market or the Dutch auctions.
Cearosasowner Paulo
Selbach was responsible for
bringing the first rose opera-
tion to the area in 2000.
Cearosa has just 3ha of roses
and represents Lex+plants,
for which it has a showroom.
They are well adapted to our
conditions and accepted in the
international market, says
Selbach.
We focus on the Brazilian
market but we also have a
licensing agreement for the use
of these varieties, which allows
us to propagate them for our
neighbours.
Jullio Cantillo, originally from
Colombia, is Cearosas produc-
tion manager. He says, Experi-
menting was a must in the
beginning. For example, we
tried soil and hydroponics with
coconut dust. We made some
of our own plastic houses and
we bought others from two
suppliers and we still think air
movement is not ideal.
Sunlight is very intense here -
one variety I used to grow in
Colombia had a cycle of 90
days and here it takes 45 days.
We have tried shading as well as
an internal air misting to keep
the humidity up - its been four
months without rain now.
Cantillo says that they use the
lessons they learn as they
expand: the land for the next
1.5 ha block is already levelled.
Agrifloricultura Reijers Ltda.,
is a roses-only operation
owned by Geraldo Reijers, who
has been exporting to the USA,
Portugal and Argentina for sev-
eral years already. He is build-
ing the first 2 ha now, and this
will expand to11 ha by the end
of 2004. The company plans to
add 5 ha per year after that.
Construction work began in
the spring and the first plant-
ing were due to be made in
September.
The main reason for the
company expansion in Cear
instead of in the state of So
Paulo (SP) was simply higher
profitability. One hectare here
yields the same as 4 ha in SP.
The white Tineker for example
is highly productive, giving
130/m
2
in SP, whereas here
more than 200/m
2
have been
achieved. With a new stem
every 45 days we get close to
the Dutch yields. Also, there is
no dormancy caused by the
colder and cloudier weather of
the south, where winter nights
at 5C are common.
Another big reason is that
due to Cears official position
of supporting only the growers
who pay plant royalties, breed-
ers who are active around the
world are now interested in sup-
plying new varieties here. That
was possible due to the political
will to get it done, in SP the per-
centage of the economy that is
based on roses is minimal.
Reijers has done some things
differently from the start: he
picked the drier part of the
plateau; uses coconut dust in
plastic troughs not pots; erect-
ed a rounded sawtooth plastic
house with a 1.8m-wide side
venting at the top, then covered
it with a blue Israeli plastic. He
is also building 1 ha of shade-
house with different types of
covering materials and first
year results will determine the
type to be used in the future.
On the drive back to
Fortaleza it is evident that
more will have to be invested
in transport as the highways
are unevenly kept. At the capi-
tals newly renovated airport
the first and so far only air-
port cold room dedicated
exclusively to flowers in Brazil
was inaugurated last year by
the governor. It is meant only
for transit, not storage, so
growers bring their flowers
here when the plane has been
scheduled. This further sup-
ports a sector that is believed
to employ around 15 people
per ha.
For further information email
Mauricio C. Mathias at
mauriciomathias@hotmail.com.
In thebeginningCearosa experimented with several
different production systems.
Cearosa focusesmainlyon theBrazilian market.