Supply chain management practices adopted by the Kenya-Dutch flower trade

Abstract

The Kenya cut flower industry dates back to the late 1960s but it was not until the 1990s that investment transformed it into a major player in the international market. With an annual growth rate of 20 percent the cut flower industry is among the fastest growing sectors of the Kenyan economy. With revenues of more than USA Dollar (USD) 250 million a year, it is Kenya’s second largest agricultural foreign exchange earner after tea (Fairtrade, 2012). Kenya is now the fifth largest flower exporter in the world. Ninety per cent of all Kenyan flowers are exported to Europe and Kenya also supplies 25 percent of cut flowers sold in the European Union (EU). The study investigates the adoption of supply chain management practices in the Kenya-Dutch flower trade. The study used descriptive research design and drew its population from 50 registered members of the Kenya Flower Council (KFC) exporting to the Dutch market as at August 21, 2013, 4 flower handling freight companies and 1 distributor. Primary data gathered with the help of a structured questionnaire was analyzed using percentages, mean scores and standard deviations to enable comparison. The results show that the strong growth in export volumes in the Kenya-Dutch flower trade has put pressure on the supply chain, creating bottlenecks that hamper efficiency and adoption of supply chain management practices. Other opportunities for further improvement in the efficiency of the supply chain are directly linked with changing market conditions and the different requirements of supplying the mass-market as opposed to supplying the traditional market