Sheep farmers export flowers to the world

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 8, Issue 380, 2 April 1991, Page 7

Sheep farmers export flowers to the world

BY GAIL 1MH0FF Two young local farmers who enjoy gardening wanted to grow something people wanted, but not carrots or potatoes. They were looking for a more in-. tensive use of land than sheep or cattle farming and after a lot of research and talking to a lot of people they decided to grow gentiana flowers.

In doing their research Alf Alabaster and Adrian Godfrey met a grower in Japan who marketed his flowers under the brand name 'Skyblue'. They, along with two Auckland growers, set up the partnership of 'Southern Skyblue' which identifies that their flowers come from New Zealand. Gentiana flowers are alpine plants which are not frost tender - they are often found above 7000 ft. The local climate of not-too-hot in summer and cool evenings suits gentiana's very well but soil conditions need to be just right, or as Alf says "the flowers are all wrong". The flowers are hard to grow and easy to harvest and come in three colours - the blue which are the most common and easiest to grow, white which are more prone to disease, and pink which are the hardest to grow. The blue flowers are the least valuable and the pink the most valuable. Southern Skyblue are growing the blue gentiana. When grown naturally the flowers grow to about 60cm high. Japanese connection The seeds used come from a breeder in Japan where they are bred for cut flowers and are grown for height. The seeds are sown in a nursery in Auckland and the following winter when dormant they are planted in the Waimarino. The plants grow for eight to nine years but are only harvested for four years as the quality of the flowers drops off after this time. The local growers have about two hectares of flowers, three of gentiana's with 0.5 hectares of nursery plants for next year. Two hundred thousand flowers were harvested

in the first season, in 1989-90 and of those picked 73 per cent of the crop was exported with five per cent of the 73 per cent going to Japan, 70 per cent to central and northern Europe with the remaining 25 per cent going to the USA. 27 per cent of the total crop was sold in New Zealand. Exports are made direct to Japan while five exporters are used in Auckland for other countries. As the quality of the flowers is high they are sold direct to importers and haven't had to be sold at auction as happens with some growers. Good team This is the second harvesting season and is a labour intensive seven day a week job during the summer. There were 12 on the payroll at the height of picking. "We are fortunate to have a good team of helpers,".said Mr Alabaster. The flowers are picked in late bud as they take four days to get to market. The blooms last for about two weeks. Once the flowers are picked they are chilled for three to four hours and then graded to length between 5090cm and made into bunches of five stems

and then chilled again. The bunches are then packed 30 bunches to a box, in tissue and newspaper to prevent them freezihg when going to the Northern winter. The picking season finishes in early April. Trial crop Larkspur are also being grown on a small scale and exported to Japan and the Asian rim. The pink and white larkspur are preferred there while the lilac and rose larkspur are selling strongly on the New

Zealand market. Larkspur are a little harder to grow than the gentiana. As well as the gentiana and larkspur, Southern Skyblue have trial blocks of different sorts of flowers which are not yet being grown

commercially. Mr Alabaster says that the last few years have been a trial period and at the end of the season they have to assess how they have done and whether or not to expand the project.