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Barbacena bounces back into

Barbacena in south east Brazil has a turmoil history of rose production. New blood and government impetus is stimulating production there again.
By Mauricio C. Mathias mauriciomathias@hotmail.com

* Sebrae is a semi-government agency assisting small and medium businesses.

arbacena had a bright start as an exporter of roses in the early 70s but this didnt guarantee a place in the sun for this town perched at 1,100m in hilly Minas Gerais state, southeastern Brazil. Its terrain is full of ups and downs, and so is its history of rose growing. At a time when other production centers were starting to develop, nearly 100 local rose growers were already regularly sending their flowers to Europe. However, a series of problems nearly wiped the town out of the flower business. Barbacenas official title of City of Roses remained, but the few growers that continued focused on the local market, with only one exporter. As there have been no investments in varieties or technology, the region fell seriously behind in productivity. Now Barbacena and eight nearby towns have 70 ha of ornamentals, and 35 growers, making it todays 5th largest region in rose production in Brazil . Sebrae* invited Flower Tech to see the changes that are under way.

Programmed pruning is another change that is making the difference, by pruning on the 1st of August, the first harvest will take place by the 20th of September, peaking again by the 25th of October and in December.

Growers were visibly demotivated until Felipe Alvim, a young Sebrae manager, started to encourage the sector again. Firstly he requested a business analysis, then he introduced pin-pointed actions with which he steadily gained the confidence of growers, such as tours organised to visit flower production in other regions, and to attend trade shows. Once growers saw for themselves that rose-growing was a profitable business in other places, they were convinced that new varieties and cultural practices could in fact turn things around. And so they did, or rather, are doing. There is liveliness in town again as growers find themselves planning for the future once more.

History
Flower cultivation has quite a history in Barbacena. It started in the 1950s by German and Italian immigrants, and their descendents. Anzano Loschi started the growers coop Uniflor, and after the success of its roses in the national market, exports started in earnest in 1969. In the early 70s shipments were being sent to the US, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. At the time, a partnership was signed with importers from (then) Western Germany for direct sales between the months of November and April; followed by the UK and Italy in 1972. Between 1970 and 1976, Barbacena exported an average of nearly 28 million

stems/year - perhaps not much by todays standards, but at a similar level with Colombia at the time, and years ahead of other dominant production centres in Brazil today. Business was doing well and growers used to go to Europe to learn new techniques and keep updated. The first problem came in 1977: increasing competition from other exporting centers was already being felt, when German importers defaulted on their payment. The legal rigmarole that ensued was never fully settled; the importers alleged a problem with one of the shipments, but continued to request more flowers. In the meantime Uniflor kept on paying its local suppliers believing in a settle-

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roses
ment, until the word came that further imports had been suspended, leaving previous debts unpaid. During the success of the first years many were attracted to rose-growing, with 97 growers in the region supplying Germany almost exclusively. Since variety, size and even packaging were all geared to a specific market, only a few were able to place their products elsewhere. With Uniflors bankruptcy, dozens of growers had their land repossessed by banks, or had to sell out: Strike one! The few that did survive, were those that either werent too indebted or had national buyers as well; from then on Barbacena continued as a major supplier but only in the national market. A second upsurge came in the 1980s when a German citizen started Brazil Flowers, a farm that intended to use new technology to, again, sell roses in Western Germany. With investments in irrigation, pruning and cold storage the company took off, peaking between 1988 and 1992 when it exported 40 million stems/year. Eventually it became the biggest employer in town, with 800 workers. By 1995 though, competition from Colombia, Ecuador and African countries was winning over their markets, and in the next year the company was forced to close down: Strike two!

Today
In the decade that followed, Barbacena kept a low profile supplying only the regional market, with isolated cases of export. Even nationally, other production centers moved further ahead. However, with yearly average temperatures of 17C, and 14.5 MJ/m2/month of global radiation, Felipe knew that the regions production potential had not changed, but the problem lay in outdated agronomic practices and ultimately in management issues. He then started to introduce changes following a Sebrae methodology of result-oriented actions. It was necessary to reverse the downward spiral, caused by little investment which resulted in low yields with low economical return, and so forth. Durval Almeida, a Brazilian

The success of traditional growers has attracted newcomers. Milton Pereira, leather fern grower, started two years ago with 1,000 m2. Now he delivers 1,200 fronds weekly, and plans to expand to 2,000 m2.

agronomist with experience in Colombia was hand-picked by Sebrae to train the growers, who hired him as a consultant. The first main change we introduced was in nutrition, since many growers relied on top dressing during some months and organic fertiliser for the rest of the year; with sprinkler irrigation. Using soil and leaf analysis, the adoption of drip irrigation allowed for fertigation, supplying the right nutrients at the right time.

Together with the change of varieties, some growers have seen a 200% increase in production, says Durval. In addition, a more even production decreased the serious drawback of stopping during the winter months: A 70% drop in production was the rule, hurting commercialisation each year. Now with other improvements in new pruning techniques, training labour and rationalising spraying we have increased production in the red

Regional production was 1.5 million stems in 2004, having doubled by 2006, and projected to reach 5 million stems in 2007, whereas exports are expected to be 100,000 in that year.

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Flower festival remains steady
Throughout Barbacenas rocky history one tradition has remained. This is the five-day Festa das Flores- a festival revolving around roses and flowers. Its 39th edition last October, was attended by 120,000 people, the main attractions being flower stands prepared by different farms and the sale of rose bushes for garden lovers. Grower Sheila Loschi specialises in the retail of rose plants, selling up to 7,000 plants during the fair. The last day of the festival attracts the most people, to watch a parade of flower-covered tractors and floats, and see the crowning of a beauty queen. Sheila is also the president of Abarflores, a growers association founded in 2000 with the sole purpose of organising the festival and the agency Sebrae has also rallied growers around it. Due to the history of rose-growing here, its no exaggeration to say that most growers were carrying a heavy emotional baggage, explains Felipe Alvim, of Sebrae. Plus, many of the growers children wanted nothing to do with floriculture, because they grew up during the boom and bust years. That raised the issue of continuity and some growers were considering stopping altogether. Abarflores now has 28 members and it estimates that the flower sector is responsible for 1,500 direct jobs, plus another 2,500 indirect ones.

chrysanthemums come next, followed by gerberas, orchids and anthuriums. Upcoming rose varieties are Carola, Impulse, Girldfriend, Akito, Greta, and Caballero. Jair estimates that 80% of what the market wants are red roses, but yellow has been increasing steadily.

Perspective
Jair concludes, With all the changes we introduced, my average yield has gone up from 70 stems/m2.year (varying from 20 to 120 according to variety) to nearly 100 now. In the end I can say it is a win-win situation since a new, registered variety costs me more per plant, but the market pays more for their flowers. His main varieties for export are Gala, Versilia, Tineker, Sandra, Confetti, Texas and Vegas. By helping to transform farmers into entrepreneurs, Sebraes small steps are going a long way to increase professionalism in the Barbacenas flower sector. Isolation, both geographical, from its buyers, and among growers themselves resulted in a narrow and short-term view of the market. Now with a wider perspective, and not seeing themselves as a region with only a glorious past, but with a rightful place in the future, Barbacena is back. We have just started, says Felipe, Unlike in the past, this time we are banking on sustainable production, now the growers are in charge of their own future. n

Vegas variety for example, from 40 stems/m2.year to 120, while reducing costs. The results speak for themselves, Barbacena production has doubled between 2004 and 2006.

Royalties
Among local growers, Jair Marciano da Silva has been the only exporter on a regular basis. Now managing 9 ha spread over 30 plastic houses, he employs 45 people, harvesting 250 dozens daily. Just before Valentines Day 2005, one of his rose shipments with 80,000 stems was seized at Lisbon airport because it contained registered varieties that had not paid royalties (Flower Tech 8, #2). He explains, We were wrong. We lost that shipment and we legalised our production with the breeder at the time. After that event, royalties became the talk of town,

and several breeders noticed that Barbacena was on the upswing again. As a result, growers who united were able to negotiate collective purchases of new varieties with some of the breeders, while go-alone growers ended up paying full prices, and breeders driving harder bargains lost an opportunity. Breeder rights are covered under the Brazilian law, as a signatory of the UPOV-78, due to a loophole in the legislation however, vegetatively reproduced species were left out, among them several ornamentals. An amendment to this law has faced much red tape and it is still to be voted on in congress. The fact that older varieties are being replaced by newer, more productive and soughtafter ones is another reason for the market success that is stim-

ulating Barbacena growers again. Jair has been a grower for almost 30 years, and during this time he has navigated the ups and down of the Brazilian economy, from hyper-inflation in the 80s to the lower US dollar exchange rate of today. He sums it up, In the last 10 years the price of older varieties has gone down, but electricity and diesel have gone up. The only way forward is to invest in higher-yielding varieties, improve management and cost control.

Opportunities
International breeders know that an area of 70 ha of flowers which is about to redevelop is a great opportunity so several of them have set up local trials to display their products and check their performance. Around this total estimated acreage, 60% are roses while

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