Packing fresh roses and cut flowers for transport is a real art.
What is crucial for careful packaging of our roses?
- Packing by hand
- Packing at the right time
- Few stopovers
- Fixing the roses in the bunch
- Fixing the bundles in the box
- Regular audit
Manual packing
Manual packaging is crucial to ensure that the beautiful roses arrive safely and undamaged at our Swiss customers’ stores. Delicate goods require careful packaging. Transportation is a challenge and a burden for the cut flowers, so each rose must be handled carefully – and with sufficient sensitivity. Every move has to be right, as the quality can be positively influenced by additional handling.
Right time
Our roses are hydrated after cutting and packed for transportation to Europe. Only well hydrated and perfect roses are considered for shipment. If care is not taken here, the roses will arrive at their destination in reduced quality. Temperature fluctuations and altitude differences can cause fungi to form during transport. This is a critical factor in addition to the actual transport, because the roses are tightly packed and a fungus can spread quickly. Our packaging here is designed to ensure adequate ventilation during transport, helping to preserve the roses for that duration.
Fixing with spacers
Roses continue to lose liquid during transportation
The challenge is to pack the roses tightly enough so that they don’t slip during transportation. At the same time, they must not be packed too tightly so that the delicate flower heads are not crushed.
That sounds easier than it is. It is a balancing act, because the roses continue to lose liquid during transportation and the volume is reduced until the roses arrive at their destination. Careful division of the roses in the bunch with spacers is therefore essential. The packaging here is tailor-made for our roses and secures the roses to a maximum.
No temporary storage
Any re-touching of the goods means a loss of quality
After arrival in Switzerland, our roses are shipped directly to the customer; partly by our own logistics, partly by Post Mondexpress. Additional intermediate storage is not part of our logistics concept. Our roses are cut exclusively to customer order and shipped directly to the customer; this means we do not trade stock or unsold stock. Disposing of unsold roses is not necessary with our logistics concept.
Fixation of the bundles
The bunches of roses are again fixed in the center of the box with a safety tape so that they can not slip. This tape is partly external to the carton and is often used to lift the carton. This is exactly a risky interface – the valuable flower heads can break or be crushed by this pressure. Here we use a trick.
How do the roses arrive to you and how do you handle the box?
Regular audits
Regular audits are an integral part of the cooperation with our fincas. We also regularly request hidden test shipments so that we can check how the goods arrive at our customers.
A recent test showed the following: it was simply impossible to repackage and secure the roses in the box as before. We unpacked a box and then repacked it for transport. What one imagines to be so simple turned out to be a real challenge. It is at moments like this that you realize how much expertise is required to pack fresh roses so that they arrive at their destination undamaged. After all, any handling means damage to the bloom.
Supply of the freshly arrived roses
Now what is the optimal care for the roses? After 48 hours after our roses have left Ecuador, the roses need not only care, but especially water. Sufficient watering before processing is crucial for our quality in particular and is often underestimated.
When you open a bunch of roses from us, you can see at first glance that the packaging is really not only a challenge, but a real art in itself.
Recognition
The staff of our fincas are true artists in the handling of roses and deserve our recognition for their performance.
Who else could ensure that our roses after processing into a bridal bouquet on the day of the wedding radiate with the bride or look so wonderful in the vase at home and delight every heart?
Remember this the next time you hold a wonderful rose from Ecuador in your hands.
