Poinsettias from Uganda: how do these well-loved plants actually get to Europe?
Report
The cultivation of poinsettias starts every year in Africa. From there, the cuttings of the plants are flown over to Europe. During the transport to the airport and the subsequent delivery, Mercedes-Benz trucks are used.
Advent is just around the corner and the poinsettias with which many people decorate their homes have a long journey behind them.
Driving fast on the main roads around Lake Victoria is impossible. Every 500 metres, locals and business owners have spread mounds of mud across the roads to create make-shift speed bumps. And the sun has baked them into rock-solid barriers. Anyone who fails to slow down and drives over them faster than a walking pace risks expensive axle damage.
“These obstacles have two advantages,” explains Peter Muwanga. “On the one hand, no-one speeds through them so pedestrians don’t get covered in dust. And on the other hand, the traders use it as a method to sell their wares to drivers and can then easily reach in through the windows. Even when the police removes the bumps, they get rebuilt again the next day. That’s just how it is here in Uganda.”
Muwanga is on the road almost every day in his Axor 1823 with refrigerated body from Carrier. The route he drives takes him from Wagagai to Entebbe airport. There’s only asphalt on a very small section of his route. And so both the driver and the load get a good shaking despite the low speed. But Muwanga is used to it. Plus, all the bumpiness has no effect on his well-packed cargo.
Peter Muwanga transports poinsettia cuttings from Wagagai Farm in Uganda.
“Poinsettias, also known as Christmas Flowers, are cultivated at Selecta One in Uganda from May to August in greenhouses covering a total area of 20 hectares.”
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Join RoadStarsWhat’s more important is that the load stays chilled and arrives at its destination on time. That’s because the truck is carrying special boxes containing poinsettia cuttings. From these, nurseries in Europe will cultivate this beloved plant in time for the Advent period. “My cargo has never missed a flight,” Muwanga explains proudly. “That’s because even on the poor roads around here, we can always fully rely on our Axor!”
Peter Muwanga’s employer is Wagagai Farm, which is situated around an hour’s drive away from Uganda’s capital, Kampala. Selecta One, a horticultural firm from Germany has leased large parts of the farm, among other things, for cultivating poinsettias. The plants are best known for their deep red leaves, although some varieties even have white or beige leaves. But regardless of their colour, the plants are as much a part of Christmas in the western world as Christmas trees and wreaths.
Extremely sensitive. The cuttings of the poinsettias look more like a sprig of mint than the large potted plant into which they will grow. During transport, the cold chain must not be broken.
Specialists at work. An employee at Wagagai Farm looks after the poinsettia mother plants. It is from these that the cuttings are obtained in readiness for European nurseries to continue cultivating them into large and impressive plants.
Green fingers. Wilson Keter is the Production Manager at Selecta One in Uganda. Around 1000 employees help grow the poinsettia cuttings in the summer months. His guiding principle is that: “Flowers are a language that everyone understands. They just spread joy.” Keter is a gardener with especially green fingers.
Sustainable business. During cultivation, environmental standpoints play a major role. Wagagai Farm fulfils the most strict European requirements. What’s more, the climate is optimal and so, despite transport by air, the ecological balance sheet is better than if production were to take place entirely in cold Europe.
Rugged and reliable. Driver Peter Muwanga takes a break on the shore of Lake Victoria. He knows he can rely wholeheartedly on his Axor 1823 with refrigerated box body from Carrier. And his employer, Wagagai Farm, has only praise for his driving skills.
Challenging road conditions. On an almost daily basis, the refrigerated Axor from Wagagai Farm delivers cuttings to Entebbe airport. A large part of the journey is on uneven, dusty sand tracks which can quickly become dangerously slippery if it rains.
Know-how from The Netherlands. Marko Steentjes is General Manager at Selecta One in Uganda. In the past, he headed up his own horticultural company in The Netherlands and was an active witness to the structural change in the sector as it happened. He’s been living in Africa for 14 years now and initially ran a flower farm in Kenia, but has since moved to Uganda.
Around 55 million cuttings.
Muwanga and the roughly 1000 colleagues who work at the farm in the harvesting season only get to see the green leaves of the mother plants. “And from them, we only need the shoots, which we cut off and then quickly send on their way as cuttings,” explains the driver.
The only way to do that is transport by air. In the peak season, Selecta One sends poinsettia cuttings on an almost daily basis from Wagagai Farm to Europe, which equates to a total of around 55 million pieces per season. The shoots are smaller than a thumb and look more like a sprig of mint than the large potted plant into which they will grow.
Straight after being harvested, while they are still in the greenhouses, employees pack the shoots into extra-insulated boxes. Following intermediary storage in coldstores at the farm, Peter Muwanga brings the sensitive plant shoots to the airport. It takes between 24 to 48 hours from the moment they are harvested to them being dispatched. After leaving the airport’s coldstores, the cuttings are kept at between eight and twelve degrees Celsius in the pleasantly temperate fuselage of a plane destined for Europe.
But before that can happen, great care and a good many work steps are necessary in Uganda ahead of the cuttings being harvested. An important recipe for success here is maintaining the strictest of hygienic conditions. “Poinsettias, also known as Christmas Flowers, are cultivated at Selecta One in Uganda from May to August in greenhouses covering a total area of 20 hectares.Producing the cuttings is a fiddly task which requires lots of patience and care, but also expert hands,” confirms Wilson Keter, Production Manager at Selecta One.
The journey of the cuttings takes them with Brussels Airlines or KLM from Entebbe directly to Brussels or Amsterdam. From there, they have just a short final journey to the horticultural companies in France, The Netherlands and Germany.
The low labour costs when compared on an international basis are just one of the reasons why the poinsettia cuttings are produced in Africa. The second reason is the climate there: poinsettias are tropical plants which originate from Mexico. Uganda offers the optimal conditions for the mother plants from which the cuttings grow.
The journey of the cuttings generally takes them with Brussels Airlines or KLM directly to Brussels or Amsterdam. From there, they have just a short final journey to the horticultural companies in France, The Netherlands and Germany, where Selecta One customers like Inga Balke bring out the full splendour of the plants.
The trained horticultural engineer runs the Krayenhagen nursery in Holstein (Germany) around ten hours’ flight time north of Entebbe. The company is a family-run business which has was founded more than a hundred years ago.
Air transport ensures the goods stay fresh. At Entebbe airport, the containers with the specially-packed poinsettia cuttings are loaded into the freight compartment of an Airbus A330 from Brussels Airlines.
A nose for trends.
Around ten years ago, Balke completely rebuilt the company’s greenhouses. Balke runs the business with a great deal of dedication and know-how. “It takes great care. You need to have employees who have a feel for the plants and who look after them intensively.” And it would appear she has a nose for identifying trends: “There’s a lot of risk involved. At an early stage in the year, I have to decide which types and which colours to plant for the coming season. If I get that wrong, I’ll be stuck with a load of unsold stock.”
Four months later. The cuttings grow into seedlings and then into the red-coloured poinsettias which Inga Balke cultivates at her company in northern Germany ready to be sold to florists on a daily basis throughout the Christmas period.
The boss isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. If her driver is absent, Inga Balke happily stands in for them and loads the poinsettias into the Atego with its Wilke box body and Webasto heating.
Easy to drive – like a car. Trained horticultural engineer Inga Balke particularly appreciates the PowerShift 3 automated gearshift when she drives the Atego.
A close connection to her customers. The majority of the Atego’s journeys are to Hamburg’s wholesale flower market, but customers near to the company’s premises have their products delivered directly by Balke.
A sales hit. Florist Andrea Biehl from Kaltenkirchen sells dozens of poinsettias on a daily basis to her customers during the Advent period.
At one o'clock in the morning, while most people are sleeping, Balke sets up shop every day at Hamburg’s wholesale flower market where she brings her plants to her customers. In the Advent period, she mostly has poinsettias on-board her Atego 818.
The red Atego with Wilke box body and Webasto heating is normally driven to Hamburg by her driver. But if he’s on holiday or occasionally ill, Balke also enjoys getting behind the wheel herself. The entrepreneur especially likes the PowerShift 3 automated gearshift. “You don’t have to change gear and can completely concentrate on the traffic.”
Just like Peter Muwanga from Uganda, Inga Balke loves her Mercedes‑Benz. Both are very convinced Mercedes‑Benz drivers and fans not only of the Mercedes star but also of the star-shaped leaves of the poinsettias they transport.
Decades-old tradition. For many families in Europe and the USA, poinsettias have long been as much a part of Christmas as Christmas trees and wreaths.
Photos: Allan Gichigi, Christian Schmid
Video: Martin Schneider-Lau
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15 comments
Unglaublich interessanter Artikel im Luftfracht Gewerbe bin ich auch tätig und das der Weg der Weihnachtssterne über die Luft nach Europa geht hätte ich auch zunächst nicht vermutet! Nun habe ich wirklich etwas dazu gelernt.
Vielen Dank für diesen Artikel toll geschrieben und das Video dazu ist super
Unglaublich interessanter Artikel im Luftfracht Gewerbe bin ich auch tätig und das der Weg der Weihnachtssterne über die Luft nach Europa geht hätte ich auch zunächst nicht vermutet! Nun habe ich wirklich etwas dazu gelernt.
Vielen Dank für diesen Artikel toll geschrieben und das Video dazu ist super