Suddenly, they’re everywhere… Scattered widely across the hills around Cayambe, countless small, informal rose nurseries have sprung up in recent years. Where once there were only cows grazing or potato plants in flower, many smallholders have now added a rose greenhouse as well.
Often these are no more than half a hectare or a single hectare, and the investment is relatively modest. They already have the land, and a one-hectare greenhouse, including 85,000 self-grafted rose plants, a basic cold store and a simple irrigation system need not cost more than EUR 100,000 to EUR 120,000. A processing shed is not required. After all, this can be done perfectly well in a garage, inside the house itself or under a plastic awning attached to the house.
What is still missing, however, are the royalties, amounting to around EUR 1 per plant. In this example, that would add another EUR 85,000 to the costs. That is often where things go wrong because, well, why make life difficult when there is an easy way?
