From Roses to Cutting Flower Exporters Find Fresh Market in Fragrant Foliage

Aug 9 , 2025
By Mekonnen Solomon

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The eucalyptus foliage has brought the floriculture industry, long anchored in roses and a handful of summer varieties, grafting a fresh branch onto its export portfolio. Growers in the country’s mid- and high-altitude horticultural cluster are moving beyond blooms to cultivate stems of Silver Dollar (cinerea), Baby Blue, Parviflora and Lemon Bush, aromatic greens prized by florists in the Gulf and Middle East for their silvery sheen and peppermint- or citrus-scented.

The shift owes much to a single and sticky fact of logistics. Addis Abeba sits only about 2.5 to 3.1 flight hours from major Gulf airports, roughly a third of the seven-to-eight-hour haul from Vietnam, the region’s dominant supplier for the past 15 years. The shorter hop keeps foliage fresher and, as crucially, slashes freight costs to between 1.30 dollars and 1.37 dollars a kilogram, far below the four to five dollars a kilo that shippers pay from Southeast Asia.

Until recently, such numbers meant little on the ground. Local customs rules bar agricultural exports that lack a government-approved minimum selling price, and the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) had never set one for eucalyptus foliage. Farms would cut perfect stems, watch them wilt for want of clearance and toss them on the compost heap. The practice felt like burning money, yet the bureaucratic deadlock endured for three years.

That changed only after Afri-Flower Plc, an Ecuadorian-owned farm outside Addis Abeba, put eucalyptus sprays front and centre at an international horticulture fair in the capital in the first week of April this year.

Within weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Bank and the customs authority introduced a floor price, subject to periodic review against global benchmarks, that finally legalised exports. Afri-Flower quickly loaded pallets for Gulf buyers. Gallica Flowers, a French-run venture nearby, and Friendship Flower, a Dutch outfit, followed, expanding acreage and laying drip-irrigation lines to push supply. More farms, eager to fill unused plots, are lining up planting orders.

Eucalyptus foliage grows in open fields without the heated greenhouses or high pesticide bills that roses demand, making it a cheaper and more environmentally palatable venture. Contract-farming schemes with out-growers are on the drawing board, potentially opening jobs for rural youth and women and diversifying smallholders’ incomes.

Ethiopia’s romance with eucalyptus is anything but new. When Emperor Menelik II founded Addis Abeba in the late 19th Century, he feared the capital would run short of fuelwood and timber. In 1895, he imported eucalyptus seeds from Australia, waived taxes for growers and handed out seedlings, igniting a forestry revolution. Today, roughly over half a million hectares, by one measure, eight times the size of Kenya’s coverage and five times that of Rwanda’s, are covered by eucalyptus, the largest expanse in Africa.

Botanists count 55 species thriving in Ethiopian soil, among them Eucalyptus camaldulensis and teratons. Seeds and cuttings, which are not available domestically, are sourced from Europe, Latin America, and Israel. Once rooted, the shrubs handily withstand the mild and highland climate.

Afri-Flower Plc, an Ecuadorian-owned farm outside Addis Abeba, put eucalyptus sprays front and centre at an international horticulture fair in the capital in the first week of April this year.

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Eucalyptus plantations have historically been criticised for depleting water resources and displacing native species. But, agronomists argue that the new foliage varieties, grown on limited land and harvested as shrubs rather than tall timber, present fewer risks. Farms are experimenting with intercropping legumes to maintain soil health and using drip irrigation to limit runoff. They also tout the crop’s potential social dividend. Under proposed contract-farming deals, households could plant quarter-hectare plots and sell weekly cuttings to packhouses, earning regular cash without clearing additional forest.

Deploying the tree as a cut-foliage crop is a novel approach. The four commercial varieties now sprouting on flower farms differ markedly from the tall plantations of old. Their juvenile stems stay compact, their leaves emerge round and waxy, and when bunched, they serve as “fillers” in mixed bouquets shipped to bouquet processors in Europe and the Middle East before landing on supermarket shelves or mail-order doorsteps.

Market demand is rising as fashion swings toward textured greens in floral design. Gulf florists cite eucalyptus’s “unique texture and aromatic properties” and its role in advanced arrangements. With freight bills low, domestic growers see an edge over Southeast Asian rivals. A Saudi wholesaler interviewed at the Addis Abeba fair noted that “one extra day in the air dulls the scent,” making proximity king. On price, Ethiopia also appears competitive. Even at the new floor, stems undercut Vietnam’s landed costs.

The economics suit a flower belt searching for a steadier footing. Over the past decade, rose exports have faced volatile prices and outbreaks of disease. Diversifying into hardy greens spreads risk. It also taps under-utilised land. Many farms hold concessions larger than current cultivation, a legacy of the early 2000s boom when investors leased highland tracts in anticipation of endless demand. Some of those hectares now lie fallow. Eucalyptus, with minimal input needs, promises to bring them back into production.

Nonetheless, export volume remains small, partly because propagation material is still imported and nursery capacity is limited. Transport links, while shorter than Asia’s, rest on a single hub-and-spoke network at Bole International Airport, where cargo space can tighten during peak coffee season. Industry executives say they are lobbying Ethiopian Airlines Cargo for priority loading windows and negotiating with freight forwarders to hold the line on rates.

For the government, the venture fits into its broader agenda to boost non-coffee horticulture exports. The national foreign-exchange reserves remain thin, and officials have long courted agribusiness that can bring fast dollars. Flower exports reached 651 million dollars last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, but growth has slowed. Eucalyptus foliage, though still niche, could push the figure higher and diversify market risk.

Whether the momentum lasts may depend on sustaining quality and navigating regulatory tweaks. The National Bank reviews minimum prices quarterly; a sudden jump could erode competitiveness. Farms also need to keep a lid on pests and maintain uniform leaf colouration, traits Gulf buyers scrutinise closely. Extension agents from the Agriculture Ministry have begun visiting fields, offering advice on pruning cycles and nutrient management.

In the longer term, Ethiopia’s eucalyptus foliage story could mirror its earlier rose success, provided expansion remains measured and data-driven. The highlands offer plentiful land between 1,800 metres and 2,400 metres in altitude, ideal for the crop, and labour is abundant. But lessons from the past caution against over-planting and neglecting market signals. Stakeholders recall the glut of hypericum and gypsophila stems a decade ago that briefly drove prices down.

For now, growers should adopt a pragmatic approach, starting small and securing contracts before scaling up. Afri-Flower plans to add 25hct next season, while Gallica targets 15. Friendship is focusing on rootstock trials before committing to larger blocks. Each says it will reserve part of its land for ongoing rose or summer-flower production, preserving diversity as a hedge.

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PUBLISHED ON Aug 09,2025 [ VOL 26 , NO 1319]

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