Aid in Action
East Africa Pavilion Wins Top Award at Flower Show
Team Effort Improves Marketing Prospects for East African Flower Companies
Miami, Florida
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Photo: ECA Trade Hub
The East Africa Pavilion was awarded the trophy for Best Stand Design at the World Floral Expo in Miami. The ECA Trade Hub organized the Pavilion for the third year in a row, sponsored all of the East African participants and designed the Pavilion through the use of the floral design consultants.
The ‘East Africa Pavilion’, a regional exhibit organized and sponsored by USAID’s East and Central Africa Trade Hub, has won the Silver Award for “Best Stand Design’ – National Pavilion’ at the 2008 World Floral Expo in Miami, Florida. The pavilion highlighted East African floral products from eight companies in Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi and Uganda.
The expo is designed to provide a venue for companies from around the world to show off displays of their new products to US floral wholesalers and high volume retailers. Close to 500 buyers visited the three day show, which is fast becoming the number one event for the U.S. floral industry. Importers were able to visit 150 exhibits from 19 countries and wrote deals worth thousands of dollars.
This is the fourth year of the trade show, and the third consecutive year that the ECA Hub has sponsored East African flower growers to attend. Africa's presence and its unique products are beginning to be noticed within the sector. As a direct result, trade contracts and contacts were made that will increase the flow of goods exported to the US from East Africa. According to Finn Holm-Olsen, Manager of the ECA Trade Hub, “East African flowers have had established markets in the EU via the Dutch auctions for years, but the U.S. market has been elusive, largely due to lack of direct transport links. Many of our companies are keen to develop/increase linkages with U.S. entities and sell directly in the U.S. market as they do in Europe. This award is recognition of the fact that the competitiveness of the cut flowers sector across East Africa is beginning to resonate in the U.S. With growing awareness among buyers in the U.S. - and the pending direct air connection between Nairobi and New York - that dream is closer to reality.”
Photo: ECA Trade Hub
The East Africa Pavilion featured flowers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi and Uganda.
Horticulture is fast becoming a major foreign currency earner for East African countries, mainly from exports to European markets. Kenya is the largest exporter of cut flowers to Europe and in 2007 gained the majority of its foreign exchange from horticulture. Ethiopia now exports to 40 different countries, sending eight million stems a month. The horticulture industry in Uganda and Burundi is also developing rapidly, while Tanzania expects to export over 8 metric tons of flowers in 2008. To date, South American and Latin American countries have led in flower exports to the US, but with a different product range and the possibility of direct flights from African countries starting as soon as summer 2008, East African countries are poised to take a share of the market.
The East and Central Africa Global Competitiveness Hub (ECA Hub) works with businesses in East African countries, supplying technical assistance and information on rules and regulations, to enable them to display their products and reach potential buyers at trade fairs in the US. The Hub is a major implementing activity of the President’s Trade for African Development and Enterprise (TRADE) initiative, assisting African businesses in benefiting from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).