F.Optimal Connection Market Review Week 60
The PJ Dave Group began its operations in 1990, the farm was started by Mr. Pravin Dave & Mrs. Elizabeth Dave with one major goal, to grow and export the highest quality fresh cut roses to customers around the world. The PJ Dave motto which says, “providing roses for every emotion” is indeed true and factual as the farm in the last 20 years has established itself as one of the leading flower exporters from Kenya. PJ Dave group consists of three flower farms; PJ Dave Flora Ltd, PJ Dave Flowers Ltd, and PJ Dave Flowers Timau (Rising Sun). These farms all complement each other in the exportation of their individual products.
We arrived at PJ Dave Flora Ltd with the aim of wanting to gain a better understanding of their remarkable and continued success.
Green House
Ms. Janki Dave and the farms General Manager Mr. Santosh Kulkarni welcomed us warmly and we sat down for an interview to find out more on their successes. Located in an idyllic landscape, PJ Dave Flora Ltd is situated in Kajiado County’s Athi Kaputiei Plains in Isinya.
A Vibrant atmosphere at PJ Dave’s pack house
Janki Dave informs us that PJ Dave Flora Ltd sits on 57 hectares of land, where they successfully grow 13 commercial rose varieties namely; Ace Pink, Athena, Belle Rose, Belle Vue, Julischka, La Belle, Lovely Rhodos, Madam Red, Memory, Moonwalk, Pink Rhodos, Tamara, and the most popular variety Rhodos Rose.
Rhodos Roses wrapped and ready for export
The Rhodos Rose, according to Mr. Kulkarni, has one of the highest demands in the market when compared to the other varieties. Janki Dave was quick to add, “Rhodos roses are the farms best seller in the international market.” Rhodos roses are grown and exported exclusively by PJ Dave Group in Kenya. This is definitely a remarkable and great achievement for the group. She informed us, “The success of the Rhodos roses for the farm in general, is mainly based on their great characteristics of producing a large head, having a long vase life and being one of the best travellers when exporting them.”
Work Motivation & Drive as a Female Executive
We desired to find out from Janki Dave on why she decided to venture into the flower business. Janki, a masters holder of Accounts and Commerce, speaks fondly of her hard working parents, who together founded and grew the PJ Dave group to what it is today. She describes them as the people who inspired her to get into rose farming two years ago through their visionary business acumen, hard work and a never give up attitude. Although they are both retired, they still continue to mentor her and act as a supporting pillar by offering valuable advice whenever she needs it.
She reveals that her hands on management as well as having a very supportive team, especially from General Manager Mr. Kulkarni who has more than 20 years of experience in the rose industry, has aided her greatly.
Ms. Janki Dave surrounded by dashing Rhodos Roses
Efforts on Quality Production
PJ Dave Flora Ltd always places maximum efforts in ensuring that all of the roses produced attain the desired market quality. Therefore an efficient system of controls has been placed to ensure all aspects of growing and harvesting are followed. According to Janki, the controls begin right from variety selection, production in the green houses, the grading halls and the cold store area. And as a business enterprise, PJ Dave Flora has also made great strides in the use of technology by investing heavily in Reverse Osmosis for the water the farm uses in irrigation.
The reverse osmosis water filtering system
Santosh Kulkarni explained to us that Reverse Osmosis is a water purification process which uses a semi permeable membrane and applied pressure to remove excessive salt from borehole water to get fresh water. “Reverse Osmosis is done as a very effective method for removing high salinity concentrations that are found in the borehole water in Isinya. Salt water damages roses by dehydrating them and also causing the browning of the leaves,” he concluded.
Moving fresh roses using the farm’s rail system
Janki finished by stating that the farm also has an added advantage of having close proximity to the airport. This is in addition to the farm investing in a reliable and efficient transport system that consists of three refrigerated trucks to transport the flowers. These according to Janki, assures that their customers always receive fresh roses without any delays.
Ensuring each head size is correctly measured
Social Responsibility and Staff motivation
We sought to establish from Ms. Janki and Mr. Kulkarni on how PJ Dave Flora motivates its staff and empowers the community living around the farm. Ms. Janki began by informing us that the farm has employed 1150 workers. In their endeavour of building a good working culture, PJ Dave Flora has built a medical clinic on the farm. The clinic provides free medical services to all of their staff members under the country’s NHIF program. As a farm, they provide free accommodation to workers and they also offer free meals to those employees who work in the grading halls.
A typical day at the pack house
PJ Dave Flora’s staff at grading hall
In their continued commitment to develop the community in the area of Isinya, Janki is proud to identify some of their successful projects, and they include:
- Building a successful primary school that offers education to children in Isinya.
- Providing watering hole for all local herders within the community free of any charges
- Milk from the farms dairy herd is sold to the community at discounted prices.
- PJ Dave Flora has allocated funds towards the formation of soccer teams for both of its male and female workers as way of supporting leisure activities in addition to discovering and cultivating their sporting talents.
Getting the right stem length
“All of the above measures are all aimed at empowering the community and the farm’s workers. The results have been extremely positive over the years, and it’s one of the major reasons that make me enjoy my work.” She adds. Being at the helm of the PJ Dave flora, Janki Dave has steered the farm to greater prosperity by coming up with specific measures aimed at reducing production cost. She admits that it is as one of the farms major challenges. Together with Kulkarni, they introduced a method of placing plastic mulch on each of the green houses. This measure has reduced both the water and fertilizer consumption needed by the flowers thus reducing high costs.
A bunch of Roses being prepared after harvest
Relationship with F.Optimal Connection
Janki Dave affirms that PJ Dave Flora has built an excellent business relationship with F.Optimal connection over the years. She acknowledges that both Managing Director Shemulik Kedem. Roses Department Manager, Ishai Sharon are always at hand to give valuable information on how to grow the farms flower sales in the international market.
PJ Dave Flora roses are unpacked and sold, through, auction in Europe by Flower Optimal Connection and some through direct sales to other parts of the world. Flower Optimal has many years experience offering strategic solutions and efficient unpacking services to growers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Israel and other countries.
The farm through the partnership with F.Optimal Connection, have placed considerable efforts in finding new markets across Europe such as Russia and in other non European countries. These new markets will seek to increase the farms revenues in the future.
We’d like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Janki Dave and Mr. Kulkarni for hosting us and giving us a tour of their majestic and outstanding farm. We had the pleasure to witness a true picture of why PJ Dave Flora is one of Kenya’s leading growers and exporters of high quality roses. It was wonderful to meet their friendly and hardworking staff and we wish them all the best in the future.
For more information on PJ Dave Flora leading roses, please contact us or send an email to Ishai Sharon at ishai.sharon@optimal-connection.com
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