Proparco - Fredrich Ochieng Photos
A sector hard hit by the impacts of covid-19
On this November afternoon, in the long aisles of the greenhouses of Bigot Flowers Kenya, dozens of employees are cutting and carefully making bouquets of blossomed roses. Yet just a few months ago, the place was deserted with none of its horticultural workers, whose work had stopped as there was no activity.
“When the crisis started in March, the activity initially fell by 20 to 30%, then plummeted to
100% in less than a week”, remembers Jagtap Kakasaheb, an agronomist at the farm. It was a shock for the company, whereas the agriculture sector is the main contributor to GDP in Kenya, with 34.1% in 2019. If flowers are not distributed they are destroyed. At the onset of the epidemic, millions of flowers were destroyed in two weeks. “Because of the epidemic, we weren’t able to either get a supply of flowers or export them. It was a huge loss for the company”, says the agronomist.