The main criteria for the quality of freshly cut flowers are
After the flowers have been cut and transported, they will retain their color, green leaf, and general appearance for a long time. It is very important for customers that the flowers are delivered to the specified pick-up point in the shortest possible time after cutting. In this case, the flowers will retain their shape and can be used for subsequent retail sales or in bouquet arrangements at florists.
When purchasing, our company is obliged to control when the batch of flowers was cut and packed. As a rule, during periods of high demand on the market, plantations send flowers to customers immediately after cutting in order to satisfy a large volume of orders. During periods when demand on the open market is low, some plantations are forced to store cut flowers in refrigerated warehouses for some time until they can sell them to customers. At this time, it is especially important to record statistics on offers from gardeners and prevent the purchase of old flowers. The experience of our employees allows us to recognize the freshness of a batch immediately before the trading day.
The required stage of opening of the buds (cut-point) is primarily determined by the requirements of the market in which the client sells. It is always important to coordinate with the plantations the degree of opening of the flowers that the client requires. If the client receives insufficiently open buds, he will be able to put the flowers on a solution with nutrients, and in a few days grow the bud to the required size. Although in this case the client will lose the time needed to feed the flowers. If the customer receives too open, overripe flowers, he may face the problem of selling them in his local market, and make a complaint.
The quality of packaging is primarily the density of the cardboard boxes and the materials used to pack the flowers into a pack. Boxes made of thick cardboard are less susceptible to deformation during transportation. High-quality corrugated cardboard or thick cellophane of the packs prevents possible contact of the buds with the inner ends of the boxes. Do not forget about the density of the packaging, the number of stems in one box. Often, airlines set the cost of freight not by the actual gross weight of the boxes, but by volumetric weight. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid empty space (air) in the boxes and fill the boxes completely with flowers.
Our company uses multi-level quality control systems for flower products. In particular, we pay for the services of external inspectors who visit the warehouses of transport companies before sending the goods. They open the boxes, measure the temperature of the flowers inside, check the degree of opening, and also report if diseases are detected. We return the boxes that quality control does not pass back to the plantations. In addition, we put portable temperature sensors in some boxes with flowers, which record graphs of temperature dependence on time throughout the delivery of flower cargo. Such devices allow us to determine whether a violation of the temperature regime occurred during the delivery process, and at what stage.
