In September, October and November the rose hips season is happening! And once again our rose hips partner Eric Stokman from Rosefruits is supplying you with these cheerful little fruits. This Hello… is about Eric’s company Rosefruits, and he gives us a look into the world of ‘rose fruits’!
ROSEFRUITS
I was almost born in between the roses, that’s how I got involved in this business. In 1936 my grandfather started cultivating roses in Aalsmeer (the Netherlands). My father developed and improved the Bacarra rose, which gave ‘Stokman Rozen’ the opportunity to grow into an international plant breeding center with branches in Ecuador and Kenya (Stokman Rozen Kenya Ltd), followed by the establishment of rose nursery Nini Ltd. But, at a certain point I was ready for a new challenge: I wanted to develop a product myself! I decided on the rose hips, at the time this was a thorny byproduct. The knowledge I gained over the years in product development, multiplying, selection and marketing were very easily applicable on this new product. So it was the perfect fit for me.
The trade name ‘Rosefruits’ was chosen because this describes the rose hip perfectly in many languages, because there is no international word for ‘rose hip’. In many languages this word is completely different. By simply calling it ‘Rosefruits’ everyone knows what we are talking about. We notice that customers are already asking when the ‘Rosefruits’ are for sale again. They call it ‘Rosefruits’ instead of rose hips, we love to hear this!
ROSE HIPS FROM SERBIA
I work with two nurseries in Serbia. One nursery is being led by a Dutchman and the other nursery is led by a family that has a lot of experience in roses. The climate, soil and the low labour costs are excellent to produce beautiful rose hips without having to use a lot of herbicides. The most important thing during my adventures abroad is to find good local partners, and fortunately I have been very lucky with that. During the harvesting season we have about 80 employees working at the nurseries. Every year we can expand and at the moment we have about 20 hectares in production. In the coming 2 years we are going to add about 10 hectares on top of that. As for myself, I’m working on the development and selection of new species, cultivation development and general business.
CULTIVATION
The rose hip branch grows for about half a year before its being harvested. After the branch has been cut down, a new branch starts to grow around March. By doing this, a rose plant can produce up to 10 years. But, it only gives fruit once a year. At the beginning of june the crop starts to blossom. Bees and bumble bees pollinate the flowers. When the pollination has gone right, the green fruit starts to grow, after august the fruit turns to orange or red.
Some varieties have to grow for two years after they are being cut down, this is the Corallo-Vertakt for example. The branches of this variety can reach a height of two meters tall. This is a very exclusive and decorative, mostly used for store or event decoration.
ROSE HIP SPECIALISM
The nurseries in Serbia were growing at an amazing rate, this is why I decided to quit my rose business in Kenya to purely focus on rose hips. So for me it is rose hips, rose hips and even more rose hips: I love this product! There are a very few breeders in the world who exclusively cultivate rose hips and have specialised themselves in this product. We offer the largest rose bottle assortment in the world, and some very exclusive varieties!
LISTENING TO WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS
I’ve learnt to regularly check in with my customers and ask them about their wishes. My biggest pride is that we managed to fulfill two major customer desires. The first big wish was to dethorn the rose hips. We do so manually and branch by branch. It is a devilish job, but there is just no other way and we are driven to do it right. Otherwise an unsuspecting florist will get a painful thorn in their hands. Because of our dedication, the dethorned rose hips became our trademark, and improved the general image and popularity of the rose hip. It turned from a unwanted byproduct into a fully-fledged product. The sorting code 024 ‘without thorn and leaf’ was initiated by us. Today, it is the standard.
Secondly, I’m very proud that, in collaboration with ‘Kwekerij Kool’ we developed the product Autumn Rosefruits. There used to be many different varieties of the same small red rose hips, this was very confusing for our buyers and their customers. Now, we managed to produce these rose hips under one name and made them available during the whole season.
ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY
Since we started in 2006 we never used herbicides, we only shuffle our lands. Due to the dry land climate, we don’t need to spray that much against fungi anyways. During the blossoming we don’t spray at all because the bees are busy pollinating the flowers, and we like to make sure we stay on the good side of the bees! Our fields are set up very spaciously, so there is an optimal natural balance. Getting a Global GAP certification is not going to be a lot of trouble, because we already are doing a great job. But our goal is to cultivate in an even more environmental friendly way. We are going to try to cultivate some varieties entirely organically, but that is going to take us a couple of years.
VARIETIES AND WREATHS
At the moment we have 15 different varieties of rose bottles, and even more are about to come out. There are differences in colour, size of the fruits, debranching but also in delivery time. We are unique in the big, bright orange rose hip, called the ‘Sunset Hiphop’. But our most exclusive product is the rose hip wreath. With this product we managed to create a name for ourselves in the high end market. The biggest wreath we deliver is on demand and has a diameter of almost a meter. It takes a days work to create this wreath containing about 10.000 small rose hips. But then you have a very exclusive product!
EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP
From Serbia the rose hips are transported to Coloríginz with whom we have an exclusive partnership. They unbox the products at arrival, manage logistics and the sales. Together we take care of the planning and the product promotion. This is to great satisfaction! I regularly visit Coloríginz not only to see whether the rose hips arrived in good condition, but also to make sure both parties stay sharp.
