African Floriculture

        The case discussed about the floriculture trade that involves the production, export and consumption of cut flowers and plants. It is one of the flourishing industries between the developed and developing countries. The main market for cut flowers and foliage from Africa is the European Union (EU). The main African producers are Ethiopian, Kenyan and Ghanaians. They have competitive advantage over competitors according to their cheap labors, affordable energy and good climatic conditions. Nevertheless, they still face some problems such as water shortage and lack of necessary infrastructure. Thus, the African countries have a lot to improve in order to sustain their place in the chain.

1)         One of the challenges for African flower and foliage producers is the need to ensure that the products reach the final consumers in good quality. The questions are therefore being raised. Whether should they produce and market their own products that are more tolerant to the stresses of long shipping or should they continue to produce traditional European flowers that are difficult to handle and expensive to transport? Personally, the producers in Africa should do both ways but they need to ensure available resources and expertise in each particular type of flower since it might not be possible to actually focus their attention only on European flowers that they are currently do. So, they need to find other opportunities and take advantage of them and, in this case, is to produce their own flower and foliage that can be found locally in the Africa. In doing so, the flowers will be more resilient and less reliant on water. This, in turn, allows the producers to gain competitive advantage as African flowers can be easily taken care of as compared to that of European flowers. Flowers are no longer as easily perishable as before. Moreover, African flowers require less water than European flower, the problems of water scarcity is then lessened. However, the African flowers are not currently in demand in the target markets and the producers still need to do some research and develop the flowers to make them outstanding in the market. To sum up, the producers are suggested to do both since African flowers will give the competitive advantage once they are in demand of the market while continue doing Europe flowers will ensure that the producers are able to retain the market share.

2)         There are many ways to be done in order to ensure increased recognition and participation in the floriculture chain in Africa. First, the producers need to make sure that the flowers and foliage are up to standard, meaning that they need to be complied with the laws and regulations. As such, the produces might set up the quality control department to ensure sustained quality of the flowers and foliage. They might also educate their workers on the right techniques during each production process and emphasize that the quality is really important and therefore it should not be compromised. Secondly, the producers must make continuous efforts to develop techniques in order to reduces costs and ultimately reduce costs to the final consumers. In this way, they can stay competitive and are able to continue holding or increase their current market share. Thirdly, small firms in Africa may start to cooperate with one another. In doing so, they are sharing resources and therefore can enjoy the benefits of economies of scale. As a result, cost per unit decreases and thus the profits will increase. Moreover, the producers need to invest more in technology improvement and development so that production process can be more effective and more efficient.