Skip to main content

Friend of the month - september

In Have your say on September... Kristian Moeller from Germany!




"Sustainability labels and certifications will be the baseline for all flowers and ornamentals sold on the European retail market, and increasingly also for smaller shops"


This month our featured friend is Kristian Moeller, CEO to GLOBALG.A.P. He shared his expertise with sustainability certification labels and its importance to the whole flower industry. His insights about how sustainable labels can help to enhance your business will make you smile!


FSF: Why are certification labels important for the flower industry?

Kristian: Certification of good agricultural practices addressing also environmental and social issues guarantee that the production processes also for flower and ornamental products have been checked for meeting consumer expectations. Certification labels provide the transparency and traceability for floral buyers.


FSF: What are the advantages of label homologations such as Florverde® Sustainable Flowers and GLOBALG.A.P?

Kristian: There are a variety of flower certification labels, and the perception of certification may suffer if the industry does not align in their requirements and set levels of integrity and content that will help the industry as a whole. Alone the fact of collaboration towards more homologation will allow for improvement of the reputation of the industry as a whole, of which every market participant will benefit from.

FSF: What is the future for sustainability labels in Europe?

Kristian: Sustainability labels and certification will be the baseline for all flowers and ornamentals sold on the European retail market, and increasingly also for smaller shops. It may not always be connected to a consumer-facing label, but traceability to assurance systems will be required and implemented.

FSF: Are European supermarkets interested in having certified flowers? Why?

Kristian: Yes, we are seeing a growth in the demand for certified flowers. The FSI benchmarking process will support the strengthening of labels with meaningful certification programs. Thus, retailers gain more trust in certification and see this as a guarantee to mitigate reputational risks in this product category.


FSF: How certification labels can help flower producers to be more competitive?

Kristian: Good certification labels require practices that help producers to be more effective and respond better to market demands. We have seen good progress in professionalism on certified farms, which pared with better market access provide better margins and profitability and prevents them more from effects of CSR campaigns.

How do you see the future of sustainable labels worldwide? Do you think demand of certified flowers will increase in the upcoming years? please share your thoughts with us!

Popular posts from this blog

Comparaciones entre Florverde Sustainable Flowers y Rainforest Alliance Certified

Sello de certificación Florverde Sustainable Flowers. E n el mundo de los estándares que pretenden certificar las buenas prácticas ambientales, sociales o de calidad para la producción, vemos cientos de iniciativas locales y mundiales con diversos niveles de reconocimiento en los distintos mercados de destino. Y es curioso observar que ese reconocimiento muchas veces se basa más en la habilidad de sus comunicaciones y mercadeo que en la robustez técnica del estándar como herramienta de mejoramiento continuo. To read this entry in English, please  click here Por otro lado existen estándares de país que se han acercado a los productores locales, entendiendo su contexto y dando respuesta a las necesidades reales en la producción, lo que los posiciona como estándares técnicamente excelentes pero de baja recordación, esto porque normalmente no cuentan con los recursos de mercadeo para posicionarse a nivel internacional, entre la cadena de suministro y mucho menos al nivel d...

Embajadores Florverde: José Luis Gómez

Por: Juliana Díaz. En esta oportunidad queremos presentar un miembro del Consejo Asesor y además  embajador de Florverde Sustainable Flowers, José Luis Gómez del Fondo Acción.   Economista con especialización en Economía Energética de la Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (1985), y Maestría en Economía Política de New School for Social Research, Nueva York, Estados Unidos (1990); Becario Fulbright 1987-1989. José Luis dirige el Fondo Acción desde 2004. Tiene más de 20 años de experiencia en instituciones del sector público como el Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales, el Departamento Nacional de Planeación, el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural. Ha sido consultor del Banco Mundial, FIDA, IICA y FAO Florverde® Sustainable Flowers:  ¿Qué lo motivó a aceptar la invitación de ser parte del órgano de toma de decisiones de Florverde Sustainable Flowers como lo es el Consejo Asesor José Luis:  He seguid...

Roses, roses, roses - FSF certified even better!

Passion Growers - Flores Ipanema. Latest FSF certified company. At Florverde® we are very pleased to welcome a new flower company to our sustainable community.  Passion Growers, founded in 2001, is a family-oriented company dedicated to growing and providing the most beautiful and highest-quality roses. Passion Growers’ 200 varieties of roses can be found in more than 5,000 retail and grocery stores around the United States, and online under the brand name Passion Roses. Passion Growers farms are located i n the savannah just outside the capital city of Bogota, Colombia, where the roses are grown in the most ideal conditions. Flores Ipanema are one of the providers of roses for Passion Growers in North America.  For Ximena Franco, director of Florverde®, "We welcome Passion Growers - Flores Ipanema to our sustainable community after completing all the social, technical and environmental requirements to obtain the Florverde® Sustainable Flowers certificat...

General comparisons between Florverde Sustainable Flowers and Rainforest Alliance Certified

Florverde Sustainable Flowers label. I n the world of standards which aim to certify good environmental, social or quality production practices, we see hundreds of local and global initiatives with diverse levels of recognition in the different destination markets. And it is curious to note that this recognition is more often based on the ability of their communications and marketing strategies rather than on the technical robustness of the standards as a tool for continuous improvement. Para leer este post en español, por favor haga click aquí.  On the other hand, there are country-level standards that have approached local producers, understanding their context and responding to their real needs in terms of production, which positions them as technically excellent standards, but with a low remembrance due to the fact that they usually do not have the marketing resources to position themselves internationally, between the supply chain and even less at ...

INTERVIEW | Getting to know more about the Tingua that lives on our flower farms

Erika Milena Sánchez - Colombia Biodiversity Scholar doing field work on a floriculture farm. The "Spot-flanked Gallinule ( Gallinula melanops ) –or Tingua moteada in Spanish" is an endemic subspecies found in the Eastern Colombian Mountain Range located in the Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments, and it is considered endangered due to various threats to its natural habitats. Thanks to the project The Birds of the Asocolflores Flowers ( Las Aves de las flores de Asocolflores ), their presence was identified in the flower farms located in the Savannah region of Bogotá; these farms count on artificial reservoirs of rainwater which provide water mirrors and some aquatic plant coverings that help the birds to feed and survive. Lea este artículo en Español aquí We interviewed Erika Milena Sánchez, the first scholarship holder from the agreement between Asocolflores and the Colombian Biodiversity Research Fund of the Alejandro Ángel Escobar Foundation. She presented the...