Russia is a key market for Kenya flowers. Association's CEO Mr. Wesley Siele, a team from Red Lands Roses led by General Manager Dr. Isabelle Spindler  are on a tour in Russia to familiarize with the flower market, understand the challenges therein for Kenya flower growers, interact with key buyers and understand their expectations as well as discuss with relevant authorities ways to make Kenya flowers more marketable.

Among the challenges faced are the fact that there are no direct clearing of flowers in Moscow hence importers are forced to go through Netherlands raising costs,  Artificial flowers from China beginning to take market share in Moscow and  Flowers from Equador/Colombia arriving in Moscow are much cheaper than Kenyan.

During the visit the team also paid a courtesy call on Kenya ambassador to Russian Federation H.E Ben Ogutu.

The team discussed on areas the ambassador can assist Kenyan growers to ensure more market share, ease of cargo movement through direct freights, promotional activities to create more awareness, and influence discussion on high cost of production that make Kenya products uncompetitive.

The Association has yet again achieved other two milestones and these two, on the same day! The good news is that after what seemed like a long wait, AEA signed to membership of Horticultural Crops Directorate(HCD), a Directorate under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) whose mandate is to oversee the Regulation, Development and Promotion of the Horticultural crops sector, through the provisions of the AFA Act (Act No. 13 of 2013), Crops Act (Act 16 of 2013)and other relevant laws and regulations. HCD is one of the eight Directorates under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).

It is now a requirement for all Horticulture producers to belong to an Association recognized by HCDA to be given an export licence.

In a meeting attended by outgoing AEA Chairman, Mr. Tom Ochieng and AEA CEO, Mr. Wesley Siele early morning of Friday 16th July 2021 at AFA Headquarters in Nairobi, Mr. Wilfred Yako, Assistant Director, Regulations and Compliance with his colleague Ms. Josephine Simiyu the Manager in charge of Regulations and Compliance assured the team of their support to ensure all members are compliant and no company under AEA membership will be denied certification since all the required information will be provided and consultation will be as often as need be to ensure they are compliant.