Flowers
Flowers are used by many as gifts and decoration and are also given as a sign of affection. Flowers, in addition to a favorable environment, need water, sunlight and soil nutrients to grow. The local florist sells flowers of various kind including lilies, roses, iris, sunflowers, among others. The florist goes to various lengths to get his flowers. The purchases the flowers from local flower growers but sometimes during the periods of high demand, they are imported to meet the high demand (Chatrchyan, 2011). The local flower growers need water, fertilizers, and seeds to continue their floriculture business. In order for the businesses involved to be successful there is need to have a structured channel of distribution. This paper seeks to map the supply chain for the various products involved in the process, the location where they are found and the mode of transportation used to ferry the supplies.
Seeds are mainly gotten from the Goldsmith Seeds company in California, one of the leading seed producers in the United States. The company efficiently produces high-quality seeds of all types. The farmer specifies the type of seeds they need when making their order. Seeds are highly perishable and tend to be less bulky hence they are transported by plane (Hall, Dennis, Lopez & Marshall, 2009). Given the mode of delivery the orders are fulfilled within twenty four hours. The planting is also done in large quantities since farmers require high quantities of seeds during the planting season.
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Water for the flowers is obtained from the local Water Board that pumps its water from the Mississippi River in Missouri. Water is very essential to the farmer as the flowers cannot grow without it given that flowers such as the primrose are less resistant to draught and require large amounts of water to thrive. Farmers in areas with naturally wet soil are advantaged as they outsource relatively lower amounts of water as compared to those in the dry areas. As a result, most farmers in the dry areas tend to avoid growing flowers that require higher amounts of water in order to lower the costs of production.
Fertilizers are normally used on flowers to supplement the nutrients found in the soil. Fertilizers also help rejuvenate the soil when it loses its fertility (Chatrchyan, 2011). Among the many renowned fertilizer companies in the United States, farmers prefer to purchase the fertilizers from Greene County Fertilizer Company in Maryland. Greene Company is preferred for its efficient, durable and authentic fertilizers. Given that Green has been working with farmers for several decades, the company has managed to position itself as a trusted brand hence increasing the number of farmers buying its products. Given that fertilizers tend to be bulky the main mode of transportation is through trucks.
Large scale local farmers are adopting greenhouse floriculture, which is developing fast in Kansas. The trend has been adopted from Netherlands, the greatest flower producer in the world. The greenhouses are imported from dealers in Netherlands where the same are in use and hence are trusted. Transportation is by air from Netherlands to wholesalers who then supply the local farmers.
Machines for the flower growing are majorly imported from Netherlands, where they are mainly put to use. These include planting, weeding, pruning and harvesting machines (Hall et al., 2009). The light machines are air-lifted whereas the heavy ones are transported by ship and trucks.
The flower supply sometimes fails to meet the demand. In such times, flowers may be imported to meet customer demand. Netherlands is a major flower exporter from where they are airlifted as they due to the highly perishable nature of these plants. These flowers are bought from major wholesalers by local florists who deal directly with the customers.
References
Chatrchyan, S. (2011). Measurement of production cross sections. Journal of High Energy Physics , 32, 67-76.
Hall, T., Dennis, J., Lopez, R., & Marshall, M. (2009). Factors affecting growers’ willingness to adopt sustainable floriculture practices. Horticultural Science , 44 (5), 1346-1351.
