Despite the global crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Ecuadorian rose farm Star Roses has decided to invest in state-of-the-art technology that allows greater control and precision in the management and conditioning of water for their crops, which potentiates the production results. The system; Isii – Xperience, will arrive this month and be installed in their 2 production units that have a total size of 35ha. After one month, it will be fully functional, making it one of the pioneering flower companies in Latin America, explains Diego Negrete, General Manager at Star Roses.

Diego Negrete at the FlowersExpo Moscow 2019. 

The system
Isii – Xperience is a water managing system, supplied by Nitzan GmbH (Switzerland) and Hoogendoorn B.V. (The Netherlands), that will not only allow the automation, measurement and precision in the conditioning of the water of the crops, but will also allow a complete control of the farm’s water management, mixture of nutrients and disinfection equipment that even helps to reduce environmental contamination. “On top of that, they can also have our state of the art data management system where they can evaluate, store and compare information of the different inputs from the farm as well as with other Isii-Xperience growers. The system is powered by Hoogendoorn with isii Next Generation computer, and let’s grow Cloud platform”, says Mauricio Yanez of Nizan GmbH.

Farm 1 and farm 2. 

Reason for the decision
“We are looking forward with this investment because we have already seen the results with our crop management system in conjunction with the irrigation and post harvest system. The irrigation system and our crop management system are a perfect match in our mission to accomplish the best quality roses possible. In the greenhouses with great colours, head size, foliage, and also with very good response in productivity, at the postharvest with improved water absorption of stems, vase life, botrytis control. Ultimately with these investments in top technology we are guaranteeing that our clients will always receive freshness and top quality roses.”, the grower says.

On top of enhancing the quality of the roses, this investment which has a payback period of about 15 to 20 months, also makes Star Roses one of the pioneering flower companies in Latin America. “We will be one of the pioneering flower farms in the implementation of the latest in state-of-the-art technology that optimizes agronomic, economic and ecological performance to the maximum.”

Why now?
Due to COVID-19, times have been and are still tough for many Latin American growers, but even with this situation, Star Roses decided to invest in this system. “We believe the flowers industry has demonstrated business maturity and that we are as a farm at the best moment in the business so we have to take advantage of this. We strongly believe that in crisis you have to seek for good opportunities to invest in and to expand as long as the economy of the farm lets you. Star Roses has expressed to costumers the desire to invest and to expand even with the pandemic passing by and they have supported us very much, they are very interested in the new products we are going to offer them and more importantly to maintain the quality that has lead us to be where we are right now in the roses industry around the globe.”

Expected results
So, what results are expected? “What we are always looking for is to maintain and have the best consistency of our roses. We will maintain and hopefully increase our stems length, head sizes and also high vase life which characterizes Star Roses; we also seek to maintain productivity and plant health over the years. Maintain and have consistency on all these parameters are very important to us because it is well known that as plants get older you will start to decrease in these numbers, with the new irrigation system and with a good plant and soil management we guarantee the sustainability of the farm over time.

In October in full production
The system will be installed in the 2 production units they have, covering an acreage of 35 hectares among the two. “This will guarantee consistency in quality in all of our production” In October, it is expected that the system will be fully functional. “This month, the system will be shipped from the Netherlands and will be installed, which takes about a month.”

Publication date: Fri 11 Sep 2020