ceara roses australia hydrop

8/13/2019 Ceara Roses Australia Hydrop

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In the overall international flower market Brazil is still a

minor player, one whose main potential still lies in its

internal consumer market of nearly 190 million people.

However, slowly but surely, exports of the floriculture

industry have been on the rise since 2002, and every year

after that has seen a new national export record for the sector,

having reached US$37 million last year.

This amount is dwarfed though when compared to other

countries in South America such as Ecuador and Colombia, both

cut-flower export powerhouses. Colombia, for example, is the

worlds biggest rose exporter and the second largest flower

exporter, only behind the Netherlands. Even though Colombia’s

industry is only 40 years old, in 2007 they exceeded US$1 billion

in flower exports. Their secret? Sector organisation, nearly ideal

climate altitude near the equator, and a short distance to their

main consumer market, the USA, are among the key ingredients.

All of that has been known for a while in Brazil, which is a top

world producer of several ag products such as soy, coffee,

tobacco, orange juice - and beef, having recently overtaken

Australia at that. However, it is general knowledge that Brazil

doesn’t have high-altitude areas such as Colombia’s main flowerproducing zone, the Bogota Savannah at 2,500 metres. So, even for

the average Brazilian, it came as a surprise when the north-eastern

state of Ceará started a promotion program to attract investors and

growers to develop a new rose export production area.

As it turned out, a previous study requested by that state

government had showed that a region called the Ibiapaba plateau,

350km away from Fortaleza, the state capital, had enough of a

night cooling effect to allow for good flower cultivation. Due to its

900 metre altitude it has a cooler average temperature than the

rest of Ceará. Located almost at the equator (at 4º S, compared to

Darwin at 7º S), the state has 2,800 hours of sunshine per year.

This region’s good local climate is known by its local people, a few

vegetable growers among them, and only one major fruit company,

but it is almost entirely unheard of by the rest of the country.

Ceará’s coast is a known vacation destination within Brazil due to

its palm tree-dotted, white-sand beaches, which are also a major

attraction for European tourists looking for a warm destination

28 . Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses . July/August . 2008

A geneal view of the Ceara countryside

not unlike parts of Australia.

Cearosa was the first company to build a

plastic rose house in the Ceará region.

Up to 100,000 stems are cut daily.

Heleno Assis, one of the production

managers at Reijers Producáo de Rosas.



during northern hemisphere winters, helped by the fact that it is

only an 8-hour flight away from Lisbon, Portugal. However, while

the state’s coastal economy had boomed with tourism-driven

businesses, its hinterland hasn’t improved as much.

Brazil’s total land mass is slightly larger than that of Australia,

but the contrast between the climate of its different regions is

probably even sharper. The country may be best known worldwide

for the Amazon forest, but its semi-arid north-eastern landscape

has more similarities with Australia’s interior. Some areas may

not have any rainfall for years so, not surprisingly, it is Brazil’s

least economically developed region, and naturally many of its

people migrate to urban centres in search of jobs.

In the year 2000 with all these facts at hand, the Ceará state

government set out to work with the Colombian example in mind.

Flowers are a crop with much added-value, which would be good

for the overall economy. It also requires considerable labor per

ha, creating local jobs and stopping migration. At the time the

Brazilian currency, the Real (R$), was devaluating towards the

US dollar, so exports were being supported by the federal

government. The airline companies that flew tourists in could

take extra cargo on their way back to Europe – or so went thethought at the time. In any case, it would be a shorter trip to

export roses to Europe from Ceará than from Brazil’s traditional

flower-producing regions at more southern locations. To top it off,

cost of production tended to be lower than in the more developed

and industrialised south. There was only one catch of course; they

would have to let the rest of the world know about it.

Flora-Brasilis

And that they did. Ceará set up a partnership with federal

agency Apex, in charge of supporting export initiatives, called

the Flora-Brasilis program. With their funding they participated

in some of the main horticulture trade shows in the USA and

Europe in order to attract investors and to assess exporting

possibilities. The Horti-fair in the Netherlands was one of the

shows where Ceará had their own stand for a couple of years.

On top of access to the original government geophysical study

showing where the best soils and underground water in Ibiapaba

plateau were, what they offered to incoming business was

assistance to buyers to find land, and help negotiating it if

necessary. There was also a guarantee to service utilities up to

the farm gate. However, there would be no preferential financing

outside the regular loans from development banks.

Naturally the Flora-Brasilis program participated in the national

trade show circuit as well, and there it ended up creating the most

attraction where it was least expected. Established rose-growing

companies from the populous, more industrialised southern statesdidn’t see a new rose area in Ceará as possible competition, but as

an option for expansion at a lower-cost location, closer to their

export destination and at a climate where production wouldn’t slow

down during winter. All the better for Ceará since the international

firms they had initially aimed at didn’t materialise. There were

several visits by potential investors, some negotiation and a couple

of them even bought land there, but no rose-growing started.

A north-eastern rose

Before a whole new sector was started in earnest, a few possible

obstacles had to be removed. One of them was infrastructure. A

cold room was built at the state capital airport so all the export

paperwork could be checked, and the flowers could be inspected

by the authorities at an appropriate temperature. The room is

exclusively dedicated to flowers, but for transit only, not storage.

The very first company to build a 1ha plastic house and harvest

the first Ceará rose was Cearosa, which interestingly enough was

also a newcomer to the business. Owned by Paulo Selbach, an

executive from another industry who believed in this opportunity,

it was started in the year 2000. Cearosa’s main difference from

the other companies that followed has been the constant focus on

the national market rather than exports.

Since day one, Cearosa’s production manager has been the

Colombian Julio Cantillo, hired by Selbach while Julio was

still consulting to the state agency as part of a program to

bring in foreign expertise. And through these years Cantillo

has accomplished a doubling of the initial yield in some of the

varieties by adapting to the local conditions. One of them has gone

from 60 to 120 stem/m2 per year. Firstly, the sandy soils would

drain the fertigation too quickly so lots more organic matter was

incorporated in later plantings, which also helped some varieties

to produce a much-appreciated longer stem. The ‘arching’ pruning

was also adopted in 2003, and replanted sections have a tighterspacing reduced from 50 to 35 cm between rows to make use of

the higher light intensity. These new sections now start producing

at 10 weeks after planting, instead of the previous 12 weeks.

Hydroponic roses

The second company to set up shop was Reijers Produção de Rosas,

part of the biggest rose growing group in Brazil. With headquarters

in the state of São Paulo, and branches in a neighboring state also

Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses . July/August . 2008. 29



in the south, their Ceará branch has become the largest greenhouse

area in Ibiapaba, totaling 20ha of roses – all grown hydroponically.

Coconut coir has been their substrate of choice from the start.

Initially using drip-irrigated 12L pots with two to three plants per

pot, and 20L pots with up to four plants, these plastic containers

are filled with coir and topped off with dried, chopped palm

leaves. These help keep in the moisture, which would otherwise

evaporate from the substrate top. Plus, they are an inexpensive,

easy-to-find material, a by-product from the extraction of wax

from carnauba palm leaves, a major local industry.

More recently, cultivation has evolved to continuous troughs of

metal wiring, covered with a white plastic liner, also filled with

coir. The drain is collected at the far end of the rows in half of all

greenhouses, and recirculated back into the irrigation solution.

Some of the areas with pots have been fitted with liners

underneath for drain collection as well. Presently, the company

works with eight commercial varieties and since they export and

sell in the national market, they have to keep up with the latest

international trends for new colours. Half of the area is presently

planted with classic red roses, and the other half divided by other

colours requested by their European customers.On an average day, between 80,000 to 100,000 stems are cut,

transported to their cooled pack room, sorted and trucked to their

own distribution centre in Fortaleza, or exported. In order to

maintain head size homogeneity, the same area may be harvested

up to three times a day. Each house has its own supervisor and a

fixed team that works the same areas. Once cut and trimmed,

stems are placed in plastic boxes filled with water. In turn, these

are transferred to a cart once the worker is done with a row, and

the cart is transported by a suspended monorail system to the pack

house. A total of 250 workers are employed at this site, but more

expansion is underway with at least 2ha more planned for this year.

Pest and diseases

The main disease challenges are downy and powdery mildew,

depending on the time of the year. But in general among most

local companies, huge improvements have been made lately with

biological pest and disease control. By choosing more resistant

varieties and applying beneficial fungi, chemical spraying has

30 . Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses . July/August . 2008

A recent innovation is continuous troughs covered

with a white plastic liner and filled with coir.

Once cut and trimmed, stems are placed

in plastic boxes.

Each house has its own supervisor and a fixed

team that works the same areas.



been drastically reduced. To keep pest mites under check during

the dry season, beneficial mites are regularly introduced.

Other companies in the area include Reijers Agrifloricultura,

which cultivates 8ha in a nearby location, with 2ha more under

construction. At this firm though, all roses are soil-cultivated, and

almost organically at that. The beds are 80% compost made of

manioc meal, gypsum, lime, bone meal, micronutrients and

bokashi, a type of organic fertiliser - a combination that has

worked to prevent a common soil nematode from getting to the

plants. Originally an exporting project as well, since 2006 they

have been entirely dedicated to the national market due to a

problem that has been a major stumbling block for further sector

development - the lack of air freight room in international flights.

Bottleneck

Even though most firms have grown considerably since they started

up, they could have grown more, or faster if they had guaranteed

transportation to their market destinations. Charter flights with

tourists aren’t big or regular enough during the year for the

necessary steady flow to supply their customers year-round. On the

other hand, the planted area at the moment hasn’t shown itself

attractive enough yet for airline companies to commit regular cargo

flights, so at the moment it has become a chicken and egg issue.

This may have hurt the region’s development somewhat, but

hasn’t stopped Ceará from becoming Brazil’s main rose exporting

state in a short 7-year period. The state went from a net importer

of flowers from the rest of Brazil in 1999 to US$5 million in exports

last year, and growing. Considering covered- and field-production,

Ceará totalled 288ha of diverse flowers at the end of 2006. No small

feat for a part of the country where no major flower enterprise had

been attempted before. Based on this success story the Flora-Brasilis

program with Apex support has been renewed and now represents

39 companies from eight states in Brazil.

About the author

Mauricio Mathias is a horticultural consultant for greenhouse

vegetables in Brazil. He is also a regular contributor on greenhouse

crops and related topics to international horticultural publications.

Email: [email protected] b

Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses . July/August . 2008. 31

Half of the area is presently planted

with classic red roses.

Dried, chopped palm leaves help keep in

the moisture.

The main disease challenges are downy

and powdery mildew.

Ibiapaba plateau has a cooler average

temperature than the rest of Ceará.

ceara roses australia hydrop

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