INTERVIEW


Jairo Arango: In my opinion the biggest challenges are: the commercialization of the product in the dif- ferent markets and the introduction of new products in a saturated market of all the existing cut flowers.


Q: Which marketing strategies help your busi- ness to distinguish itself and stay ahead of the competition?


Kenji Tanaka: Like probably all marketers we have to think about supply and demand, try to find a bal- ance in this, and on top of that, choose the best vari- eties that will fill in the demand, but it will always be difficult.


Jairo Arango: First, quality, and second, the differ- entiation in the presentation of the product. Con- sider differentiation as any aspect itself of the prod- uct (better spray, greater amount of flowers, higher weight) allowing us to have differentiation among our competitors.


Q: What are three things you need to be success- ful as a cut flower grower and marketer?


Kenji Tanaka: In my opinion there are three impor- tant points that have a big influence of company’s success: First, the interaction between end user and grower.


If we want to be successful going forward, “ “


If we want to be


successful going for- ward, growers must focus on creating


relationships and


engagement with customers.


growers must focus on creating relationships and engagement with customers. Learn what they need, what they care about, what they think about their business, markets, and challenges. At the same time the customers should know the growers’ possibili- ties in respect to variety range, colours, etc. There- fore communication between these two groups is the key to success. Second, you have to be a reliable supplier of quality flowers to the market. And the last but not least, the need to be a reliable supplier in respect to quantities to the wholesalers so there is ample supply to the customer.


(...) you have to be a reliable supplier of quality flowers to the market.


Jairo Arango: There are three things you absolute- ly need to achieve your company goals and to be successful on the market: First: Good and reliable genetic plant material, which allows you to grow good quality plants. Second: an efficient and solid commercial team able to run sales. And third: sus- tainable use of the environment; thanks to it you can lower production costs, improve productivity, and of course enhance your company reputation.


SCF www.SelectaCutFlowers.com FloralNews 5 4


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