Grower report

Eye for markets and cultivars

In Brazil, most orchid nurseries are small operations. Therefore, Flora Hiranaka is an exception with a production of 350,000 plants per year and an area of 10 ha. Owner Alexandre Hiranaka explains how his company managed to set itself apart.
By Mauricio C. Mathias, mauriciomathias@hotmail.com

lora Hiranaka is an operation with three different sites with a total area of 9.8 ha. The headquarters is located in the town of Atibaia, in So Paulo state, Brazil. Its main products are dendrobium (170,000 vases/year), phalaenopsis (around 130,000 vases/year), and cymbidium (50,000 vases, plus 50,000 cut stems). Alexandre Hiranaka is running the operation where 100 people find employment. He took over the family farmoperation from his father Nobuyuki, who started the company, after he immigrated to Brazil from Japan in 1962. There are some key factors which has set Flora Hiranaka

apart from the other orchid growers, which are mostly small operations. An important factor according to Alexandre Hiranaka is that the company was always ahead regarding varieties. This was due to my fathers contacts in Japan, which gave him information about the species and varieties that were going to be in demand in the future. The information was crucial to bet on the right varieties early on. Since orchids have a long production cycle and demand a high investment cost, it is even more necessary to know your market well, and how its going to be in the coming years. According to Hiranaka this

Alexandre Hiranaka - in the dendrobium greenhouse - managed to keep the company ahead.

has been true for cymbidiums especially; of which Japan has been a great consumer and producer for over 30 years.

Export to Japan
Another reason for the growers expansion is the eye for new markets. We started exporting cymbidiums to Japan some 16 years ago, when it was not so common for growers from

Brazil to export. It was our first international experience. Business was good for years while the national currency was weak compared to the US dollar, so the company was able to profit, re-invest and expand. Nowadays exports are only 10% of the revenue. The USA is the most important destination, followed by the Netherlands. Exports to Japan

Phalaenopsis in the new high-tech greenhouse including climate control, fans, screens, rolling benches and rails.

Cymbidium plants being potted in the greenhouse.

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FlowerTECH 2009, vol. 12/no. 1

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Grower report

sets Brazilian grower apart

Cut cymbidium ready for shipping.

Investments reduced the cycle time of phalaenopsis

In the year 2000, Flora Hiranaka invested in a Priva climate control, something which only a handful of phalaenopsis young plants operations have in Brazil today. The reason for the investment, as Hiranaka explains, is the demand of phalaenopsis for more structure in keeping the warmth. This worked out well, since with the climate control, we reduced the cycle time in pots from two years to one and a half now. When you consider the investment necessary for a good, complete house, with rolling benches and rails, not every crop can pay that back. With phalaenopsis we can go up to 20 plants/m2, while with cymbidiums, six or seven plants are the maximum, otherwise they dont flower, so we keep them under simpler construction. Another investment in phalaenopsis has been the air conditioning system, since lower temperatures are needed for flower induction. While the mountains are also a good place for flowers, phalaenopsis are not taken to the mountains due to the risk of damaging the plants when trucking them back and forth. Alexandre explains that the last stretch of the way up there includes 15 km of dirt roads that are hilly and poorly kept. The company should arrive at 300,000 phalaenopsis plants next year, with two more ha. About 40% of the plants used are imported; the remainder is their own material. The advantage of the purchased material is that it takes less time in the greenhouse, up to six months, since it spent an additional phase at the lab. Production time also decreases due to the use of meristem culture. In a typical cycle young plants are in a collective tray for six months at the most, and then transferred to a number 9 pot for five months, followed by a pot 15 for about ten months. Finally, its induced to flower once it reaches the right size. While variety and pot size trials are a constant, Hiranaka is adamant about his favourite pot type. The transparent one with a raised bottom gives the best aeration according to Alexandre. Since they are epiphyte plants, they like the light on their roots and need the extra aeration, plus we save on substrate too. Cymbidium is a simpler crop compared to phalaenopsis. At Flora Hiranaka the cymbidiums are cultivated under plastic roofs, using shade nets, but with open sides. The local climate is not cold enough for cymbidiums, so every spring they are moved to a higher location in the mountains.

stopped due to competition from New Zealand and the devaluation of the US dollar, so it was hardly covering the costs in the end. As the third reason for the growth, Hiranaka mentions luck. Luck is always a part of success. One thing is to hedge on promising varieties, but who knew that orchids were going to be such a mass product one day? We were lucky that way. Hiranaka counts the many flower types his father grew before he settled with orchids, There were products like roses, carnations and gypsophilla. Back when cyclamens were a novelty for example, my dad grew 20 thousand vases at once, but didnt sell anything. The local market just not ready for it at the time.

Supplier of Carrefour
Also an important step of the company was to start selling at the Holambra auction 10 years ago. At that time there were

only a few outsiders to that Dutch-Brazilian community, and that allowed the company to become the main dendrobium supplier to supermarket giant Carrefour in Brazil. In time that worked so well that they dropped all sales to wholesalers in other state capitals in favour of the auction. By the time supermarkets had grown to be the important plant buyers they are today, the company had already invested in technology for the more intensive crops, like phalaenopsis. But that was only possible because we were developing the company little by little, in every favourable year. According to Hiranaka that is where many growers get it wrong. Some wait too long to renew their greenhouses and change its equipment. So much so, that by the time it is unavoidable, the whole thing costs too much, and then it doesnt make economical sense anymore. There is also a right time to re-invest.

As an example, the orchid grower names the investments he carried out when the US dollar was still strong. To buy equipment now may be cheaper since the US dollar weakened, but also the returns from our exports are lower.

Investing when our plants were valuable was the right call at the time. Once the national market for orchids boomed, we were poised at another level, with a scale that made it possible for us to supply large numbers. n

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