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programs, it aims to cut the violence breeds violence cycle by training people through a series of simple workshops on how to defuse problems before they escalate, at home or work. Based on mediation, and by teaching negotiation skills, the program became very popular, and over 20,000 families have attended it. Now with new USAID resources it aims at 50,000 families. The list goes on with Continued Education, School Reinforcement, and others, in a total of US$ 20 million invested in 2005.
has been taken in the right direction. Such initiatives are a testimonial that the sector has reached maturity and has more than cold numbers to show for it. The private sector is sharing the cost of social progress with health, education, and housing programs, areas where the government alone has not been able to take care in its entirety. Better-trained, fed and paid, workers are naturally more productive in a classical win-win situation, with further gains for the environment and, finally, the consumer as well. For profitable ornamental sectors worldwide, this is a powerful example of how much can be done when there is a change of mind set. Jairo Cadavid, Asocolflores communica-
Some 17,000 children under the age of seven join day care centres which allows their mothers, who often head the household, to work.
tions director is growing familiar with the sense of disbelief visitors experience upon seeing a reality so different from its previous image and stereotypes. We are an open-door sector, and Asocolflores extends its invitation to everyone who would like to learn about us and our development. n
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lready the main US flower supplier, and second largest exporter worldwide, Colombia has addressed several issues to arrive where its at. Now, as part of the quest to keep the growth momentum, technology is being looked at closely. Even though technology alone may not help growers recoup margins lost to devaluation, Ceniflores, a virtual research centre was inaugurated by Asocolflores in 2004 to address the growers need for know-how.
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Ceniflores
The Colombian Centre for Innovation in Floriculture is the latest, and probably most promising, development within Asocolflores. It can best be defined as a virtual research center directed by a Canadian with a PhD degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Rebecca Lee, Ceniflores director, explains that, Asocolflores had been managing research under its technical division, but the Association formalised this area providing more agility in finding solutions to the growers problems. The design of the Centre started in 2003, when a supply and demand survey was taken to assess what was already available and what was needed by growers. On the supply side it was determined that there actually was an under-utilised research capacity in Colombia, with available scientists and laboratories. Thats where the virtual
Asocolflores
Asocolflores, the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters represents 75% (in value) of all of Colombias flower exports. It was started in 1973 and from then on it has been involved in almost every aspect of the flower business, except for trading. Top among Asocolflores actions has been the Florverde program, which is largely
responsible for the success of the industry in the last years, making Colombian floriculture sustainable (see article, page 6). As this social and environmental program neared its 10th anniversary with secured gains for the sector, Colombian growers started looking at other ways of maintaining growth in a sustainable way.
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came from: there was no need to spend money replicating a physical infra-structure that was already there. What we did then was to catalogue researchers and their specialties, so now we have projects set up with specialists at several Colombian universities, as well as with international experts, without fixed costs. On the demand side, Rebecca mentions some of the projects. One of them concerns the effect of plant nutrition on the occurrence of downy mildew, and thats been underway in partnership with CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture). Another one is about flower post-harvest, an international collaboration with the University of Florida. Research results are subsequently present-
ed to growers in workshops. Two other projects focus on precise entomological classification, essential for checking quarantine pests. More information on their research and publications can be seen at www.ceniflores.org.
Interdependence with US
According to Ernesto Vlez, the relative importance of the flower trade for both the US and Colombia can not be underestimated. Not only do 60% of flowers sold in the US come from Colombia, but the specific share of some of the flowers in that market can be as high as 98% for alstroemerias, 97% for carnations, 82% for mums and poms and 70% for roses. From the Colombian perspective, 85 % of their
The level of technology is steadily increasing backed by the Colombian Centre for Innovation in Floriculture.
flowers go the USA. Involvement in the European market has fluctuated around 15% of Colombian flower exports, over the past five years, with substantial growth in the UK and Russian markets. n
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