Flower Group Impress EIB
Nov 28, 2002
“Excellent! Look at this. Isn’t it fabulous? In six days, these flowers will be in the vases of European consumers! exclaimed European Investment Bank(EIB)
By Lillian Nalumansi
“Excellent! Look at this. Isn’t it fabulous? In six days, these flowers will be in the vases of European consumers! exclaimed European Investment Bank(EIB) director general Jean-Louis Biancarelli after a tour of Rosebud Flower Farm along Entebbe Road.
An EIB official at the Luxembourg-based EIB and part of the delegation currently here on a week-long visit to assess the performance of EIB financed projects, described the rose firm as great project.
David White, a counsellor at the EIB headquarters said the level of investment Rosebud Flower farm proprietors Sudhir Ruparelia, Tom Mugenga and Karim Somani have put into the then failing flower farm they acquired two years ago, had scaled the heights.
Sudhir told The New Vision in an interview at the farm that the EIB gave them a US$2m loan through the local Barclays Bank, that contributed to the expansion of the farm from one hectare of greenhouses two years ago, to the current 23.5 hectares under production.
“What they are doing here is very impressive,†Alain Joaris the Economic Counsellor at the European Commission Delegation, said.
Rosebud 1 and 2 are on a major expansion progamme currently.
“There is a huge The visitors were impressed with the newly acquired and installed computerised fertigation system at the farm.
“This machinery measures climate and water quality before and after fertilization.It also balances the nutrition of the plants and so far is the most advanced system in the world,â€Amatsya Yehishalom said.
Yehishalom is the Balton Uganda Ltd agriculture division manager which installed and whose parent company in Israel made the equipment.
The farm’s marketing manager Jan Molenaar said they previously used the manual irrigation system “whose water quantities were unreliable,â€.
Molenaar said about 20 tonnes of roses grown at Rosebud are exported to the Dutch auctions on a weekly basis.
The farm’s manager, Paul Kirstein said some of the varieties they grow and export include sweetheart varieties black beauty, frisco and hocus. Intermediaries grown are: chelsea, sun beam and red calypso.
Ends
“Excellent! Look at this. Isn’t it fabulous? In six days, these flowers will be in the vases of European consumers! exclaimed European Investment Bank(EIB) director general Jean-Louis Biancarelli after a tour of Rosebud Flower Farm along Entebbe Road.
An EIB official at the Luxembourg-based EIB and part of the delegation currently here on a week-long visit to assess the performance of EIB financed projects, described the rose firm as great project.
David White, a counsellor at the EIB headquarters said the level of investment Rosebud Flower farm proprietors Sudhir Ruparelia, Tom Mugenga and Karim Somani have put into the then failing flower farm they acquired two years ago, had scaled the heights.
Sudhir told The New Vision in an interview at the farm that the EIB gave them a US$2m loan through the local Barclays Bank, that contributed to the expansion of the farm from one hectare of greenhouses two years ago, to the current 23.5 hectares under production.
“What they are doing here is very impressive,†Alain Joaris the Economic Counsellor at the European Commission Delegation, said.
Rosebud 1 and 2 are on a major expansion progamme currently.
“There is a huge The visitors were impressed with the newly acquired and installed computerised fertigation system at the farm.
“This machinery measures climate and water quality before and after fertilization.It also balances the nutrition of the plants and so far is the most advanced system in the world,â€Amatsya Yehishalom said.
Yehishalom is the Balton Uganda Ltd agriculture division manager which installed and whose parent company in Israel made the equipment.
The farm’s marketing manager Jan Molenaar said they previously used the manual irrigation system “whose water quantities were unreliable,â€.
Molenaar said about 20 tonnes of roses grown at Rosebud are exported to the Dutch auctions on a weekly basis.
The farm’s manager, Paul Kirstein said some of the varieties they grow and export include sweetheart varieties black beauty, frisco and hocus. Intermediaries grown are: chelsea, sun beam and red calypso.
Ends