The Blog

Peak hysteria has hit the world now Europe and the United States has made contact with COVID-19. Flowers are thrown away weekly, globally. People are losing their jobs and economies are at scrambles. There is no positive news anywhere, or is there?

We as a company, have to understand that these are the risks of doing business. We can’t blame a virus for this, because these outbreaks tend to happen in the history of time. They are part of nature, just like we are, just as our flowers are.

We have to stay positive and do not make decisions at a time where everyone is worried. China, Taiwan seems to be countries already close to full recovery from the virus and the local economy is back up and running. This virus can be beaten. And we will always continue to make the best of this situation as long as we can.

In Vietnam, the lockdown of the country has led to flowers being thrown away. A positive part seems that people still seem to try and buy flowers to have them in their house. It’s as normal as buying rice.

With that thought in mind, we continue, hope for all the good news in April.

Because everyone’s ready for spring!

Covid19 Hasn’t made international trade easier. All flower markets in China have been closed down for a while. Our customers are struggling with heavy losses. We’ve already seen containers delayed and orders canceled. The year of the rat didn’t start prosperous at all, but we have to stay confident. This isn’t a business of giving up anyway.

In Vietnam, things seem better but Covid19 also had its influence on the flower price. In and around Hanoi we had seen the very good quality of this year’s Chilean bulbs. Namely in Lesotho and Robina.

Let’s hope for better news soon. Continue to do what we’re good at, have faith that 2020 is going to be the fantastic year as promised!

We are writing this a few days after the Chinese New Year / Tet has passed. As predicted, most customers had their flowers on time in both Hanoi and Guangzhou. Stable weather and good winter conditions have surely benefited the harvest this year.

It was a long time coming for Hanoi since the harvests in 17, 18, and 19 were not promising at all. It’s good to see happy faces around the flower market. It dazzles’ us all, how big the chaos is and how many lilies are used in such a short amount of time. It gives us confidence and motivation for the year of the rat.

We now move our focus on to 8th of March, International woman’s day. We hope for another jackpot since there were not many bulbs in the market in South East Asia and China.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Chuc Mung Nam Moi, Xin nian Kuaile,

Wishing everyone a staggering 2020.

In December the weather had continued to stay stable in both Hanoi and Guangzhou. With the Chinese New Year / Tet coming up next month, we expect a harvest right about on time.

Other than that, in the Netherlands, the harvest wasn’t nearly as good as expected. Hot weather in the summer has caused a lot of crops not to grow. One grower managing better than others, but we expect between 10-12% fewer bulbs in the market to the years before. That cannot harm, hopefully, the flower prices can increase in 2020.

Meanwhile, in December we also continue planting in December. The weather was nice and the conditions were favorable. The sprouts on Lesotho and La Mancha looked really good.

Formosa is also working on some new merchandise as we boost our marketing campaign for 2020. Reaching out to new customers and new countries in 2020!

For what has been cut in December in Hanoi, we have been specially satisfied with our varieties Marlon and Lake Carey. We think all due to the great weather since the end of summer.

October and November have been surprisingly good in Vietnam and Guangzhou area. The weather is stable with cool nighttime temperatures. The lilies that were planted in September and October already showed great progress.

With the stable temperatures we certainly hope that the lilies stay on schedule for cutting mid January. Right before Tet and Chinese New Year.

Meanwhile we also paid a visit to the south of China, to see some new varieties and old friends. Always fun to be back, certainly when the crop is looking strong.

November is also the month that the harvest of fresh bulbs starts in the Netherlands. We are looking forward to that and believe this year’s crop has had a good growing season

October is planting time in Vietnam. Lots of lands are suddenly turned into lily nurseries. Lake Carey is always planted earlier because this variety has a longer growing period. So we were able to go and see the first plants.

The temperature in October has been quite low. Together with small amounts of rain, it forms the perfect growing period for lily in Hanoi. The quality of the flowers is high but the flower price remains at an all-time low. Even for women’s day, October 20, there was no major peak. Perhaps more luck on November 20 when it’s teacher’s day.

Through this month and the next, Formosa Investment will monitor the planting process in both China and Vietnam.

The harvest 2019 has started in the Netherlands. The first results seem okay, but nothing special. A normal harvest means everyone will receive the bulbs they have ordered and no large fluctuations in price.

September is one of the busiest months in the year since we supply most of our Lilium bulbs to the North of Vietnam. All sorts of preparations take place to start the new year planting.

Some LA like Scipione and Eremo were planted over the summer and are harvested now. It’s hard times to make money, with low bulb prices, there usually come low lily prices.

In September we made another visit to Sapa. Lilium Yelloween seems the only variety to hold its price through Vietnam.

The first small-size Lake Carey was planted in the Tay Tuu area, close to Hanoi. Suffering from hot weather, all seems to go surprisingly well.

Planting season will go on full tilt starting October one and we’re looking forward to it.

In August we visited multiple clients in Vietnam and Taiwan. We checked up on some Manissa, Dalian, Resolute and Lake Carey.

Flower prices were not great over the summer. Neither in Europe or in Asia. We sure hope it will pick up soon.

In August Formosa Investment shipped a lot of containers to China and Vietnam for the planting season. The cold store is empty and we can slowly start to look to next year.

Meanwhile taking a new look at prospect markets Indonesia and Myanmar, I hope to give new news about these directions soon!

Summer has arrived and it’s boiling in the Netherlands. So it was last year, so we aren’t worried that it would affect the crop of 2019. However, it was time to check out the situation here and there. So we visited some Nashville and Resolute crops, just to be sure.

We were also surprised that some of our double lily tests could deal with the heat quite easily! That promises a lot for the customers who are in warmer climates.

This month we launched our new website www.formosabulbs.com! have a look. In Sapa, we were cutting some top-quality El Divo as well!

Early June it was time for the lily days. See all the new varieties; but mostly, get in touch with your colleagues, suppliers, and customers. We’ve seen very interesting prospects for the future, namely the double lily’s, new LA lilies and OT

After s much progress in Sapa, we needed to see it by ourselves. We found new lands to grow lily’s and everything looks promising. Local population agreed the plan and all we could do is high five to that!

n May we welcomed our Chinese customers and brought them to the famous tulip park the ‘Keukenhof’. During their trip also able to set up new businesses with new products for the Chinese market.

Meanwhile we monitor the first harvest results of Bacardi, Scorpio and Yelloween in Sapa, North Vietnam. All seems well; flower prices are up, profitable months are recorded.

We also finished framing some of our posters for the Vietnamese market in Hanoi, meanwhile sending containers out to our customers in Taiwan, China, and Vietnam.

Coming back from New Zealand, it was time to visit Taiwan and Vietnam again before going back to the Netherlands. A lot of flights, not a lot of sleep, but it is what makes this business beautiful.

In Taiwan, we were able to see the Chilean harvest of Dalian and Conca d’Or, all quite satisfying although the weather got quite hot. Where did the spring go?

We also finished the new standees for the Chinese market introducing Asterian, El Doret, Redford and Resolute, all available in 2019 and 2020. April is naturally a quiet month, time to recover from all the flying and confirm orders globally.

In March we paid a visit to our Lilium bulb suppliers in New Zealand. The growing conditions and the quality of the crop surprised us. Some new varieties are also taking its place in New Zealand such as Redford and El Doret. We’re looking forward to see the first crop 2019 in late September!

In return, the clients paid a visit to see the crop 2018 in Vietnam. Robina, La Mancha, Tarrango and Kendall all showed a great result. Some of them would be cut for 8 march international woman’s day, and some were cut later in March and April. Combined with a decent flower price, we close march as a successful month and a great start to the year of the pig.

We were also able to print our new flower book! Available now !

Happy Chinese new year and happy tet festival to all our clients! Year of the pig is regarded as a wealthy year! Most of our clients seemed to harvest their lily a week early, but still resulting in a positive harvest.

In South of China we witnessed the harvest of the lilium ‘Competition’ and all seemed well. Also many Profundo and Manissa seemed to be cut right on time.

The New Zealand and Chilean bulbs also started to show good quality, namely Tarrango, and Kendall, although being cut for a later day. Now we take a few days ff before we leave to check the new harvest in New Zealand.

A new year, fresh bulbs, a good start and the right timing to send out the first bulbs of crop 2018! Meanwhile we just go on planting the last bulbs in Vietnam. The weather is humid and wet, which makes it very cold and harsh circumstances, but it didn’t stop us from visiting some farms and checking the situation.

The Lake Carey looked very good, and so did several OT’s such as Dalian, Robina and Pinnacle. Most of the harvest seemed a bit early, but we left most farms being quite positive and so were our customers.

We left Vietnam; on the way too go see the farms in China. Who are preparing their lilium harvest for the Chinese new Year!

It’s quite warm in the Netherlands and recorded its warmest November ever. That has caused that the harvest is delayed; many bulbs won’t be ready for early planting in January.

In Vietnam we had visited several farms. The weather has been very hot and we fear an early harvest. January is very unpredictable but the crop seems ahead of the planting time, even though we had seen some of the best quality Lake Carey ever.

The last parts and bits of the New Zealand crop were planted as well. Kendall looks strong, and also the Yelloween from Chile looks top quality.

By November all bulbs for Tet and Chinese new year have been planted. Not a time to relax for Formosa though. The harvest season starts around November 15 and the first LA’s have been lifted.

Some other LA’s have already been Cut in Vietnam, they were planted in the summer. Overall flower price was still okay, but surely never high enough.

In October Formosa faces the busiest month every year. It’s the planting time for Chinese New Year (春节), or ‘tết’ in our most active countries China, Vietnam and Taiwan. At the same time, we start lifting the first bulbs in Holland with the first L.A. varieties such as Hyde Park, Corallo Beach, Eremo and some Longiflorum. We wonder if the harvest is going to be OK since we experienced a very hot and dry summer in the Netherlands.

On the 20th it was Vietnamese womens day.

Formosa had exported Palms Place, Scipione and El Divo for this event. All yellow LA as where it is a custom in Vietnam to buy women yellow varieties and not red or pink!

At the end of this month the last few New Zealand and Chile bulbs will arrive in Vietnam, Taiwan and China. That means all our containers of 2018 have been delivered and the quality checks can be performed.

[Corallo][ El Divo ][ Nzl bulbs ]

In September we took much joy in seeing such good quality flowers in the Northern Mountain range ‘Sapa’ in Vietnam. Varieties such as Bacardi and Yelloween are favorable here. A lot of rain in the summer caused a lot of trouble, but most of the harvest was saved. It resulted in top quality lilium flowers, which eventually end up in the urban areas of North Vietnam.

Later this month we visited Kunming in the South of China. New variety Paterno was performing very well there and slowly, LA varieties are becoming more popular in China. Big size flowers without smell, so easy for in house/apartment use! Young people also enjoy the bright colors.

[ Sapa ] [ Paterno ] [ Yelloween ]

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