Aug 17, 2009 (Addis Fortune/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- Ethiopia's flower exporters could be using better, market enhancing packages for their stalks as of early 2010, depending on a successful completion of a study conducted for the horticulture association by two Swiss based institutions.

The board of the Ethiopian Horticultural Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA), which represents the interests of its 87 members and promotes the expansion of the emerging export horticulture and floriculture sector in Ethiopia, had been handling complaints regarding the packaging quality both from exporters and from its buyers in Europe, Asia and Far East.

The Association requested the Centre for Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), which is an Agency of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs involved in the country's development cooperation with other countries, to sponsor a study to resolve the packaging problem. CBI accepted the request and brought along the International Trade Centre (ITC), an institution which offers technical assistance to develop exports from developing and transitional economies. The study initiated by the two institutions is now in its second phase. The first was completed in July 2009.

Tsegaye Abebe, president of the association, says that millions of packaging materials are demanded annually by local flower growers. One company required more than 20,000 carton boxes for packaging the flowers. The boxes contain 250-400 stocks. Tsegaye says that the study is needed because they could not just adopt the boxes used by other experienced exporters, such as Kenya, Ecuador or Israel.

"We have to identify our own problems," he said. "The study will identify any problems starting with the raw materials the factories use to produce the boxes."

Tsegaye says that Ethiopian exporters had discovered time and time again that a great product in ragged packaging made a bad deal, when their prime roses sold for less than prime prices. The Association hopes that the study will help flower exports reach higher levels.

CBI and ITC, which often works with the WTO and UNCTAD, are using their own consultants and spending 50,000 to 70,000 Euros for this study which will improve the packaging of the flowers.

The new phase of the study, which will be completed in October 2009, is involved in the practical aspects of packaging. It will identify the major problems related to packaging, including inspecting the quality of the raw materials used for the production of the packaging materials. Tsegaye says that one of the first problems is at the airport, where flowers, fruits and vegetables are placed in pallets to enable mass handling. The packages often become crushed in this process.

"An array of measures are already being implemented that includes making the sector-wide agreements on box sizes and communicating with the packaging industry about this issue," Tsegaye explained to Fortune.

He added that a guide for loading and off-loading flowers throughout the supply chain and storing and packaging standards will also be produced. He said that the ITC teams are converting their diagnosis and recommendations into a range of training and capacity building programmes involving the entire supply chain from growers to airline freight handlers. When the study is completed the experts will provide training to both the flower growers and the producers of the packaging materials.

<<Addis Fortune. Distributed AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). -- 08/18/2009>>