Supply Concerns
Fischer has been very forthcoming about the challenges it has faced in building up stock for Goldsmith genetics. With the partnership formed in March and finalized in April 2004, Fischer didn't have time to build stock fast enough to fill demand for the 2005 season.
"This year we are having difficulties in supplying enough Goldsmith Americana geranium cuttings to meet our initial plan and, more importantly, the orders the loyal customers of Americana had placed with us," Falkenstein says. The primary reason is that everything started late this year. In March we had no idea we would even be producing and selling Goldsmith varieties. In April we began the planning, which normally would have happened a year earlier. In May we began construction of an additional 12 acres of greenhouse and in June began shipping Elite cuttings to China for the buildup."
In addition, some official paperwork needed to satisfy Chinese customs was not filed, which caused a delay in the shipping of Elite stock to Shanghai, so they arrived stressed. Finally, one of the biggest issues with producing unrooted cuttings in China is the hot climate there in the summer months. After the challenges Eastfields faced this year, one of Fischer's goals is to make sure stock plants get established before the summer heat, which can stall plants' rooting and bulking up.
"If all had gone perfectly, we would have most likely achieved our planned numbers. As it is, we will be 80 percent of plan in the peak season and that is significant. Due to the timing of events, if we hadn't done this there would have been no Goldsmith geraniums going to the U.S. market for this season. Regretfully, our early season customers are suffering most with shortfalls, but in most cases we have been able to substitute Fischer varieties."
He adds availability of Goldfisch products for the 2006 season should not be a problem, as planning and stock buildup will be ahead of schedule.
In 2003, Fischer imported 5 million cuttings from Eastfields into the United States. Compared to cuttings from Fischer's other facilities, Falkenstein says cuttings from Eastfields were among the best in quality and uniformity. Many on the trip who had received cuttings from China in 2004 agreed. "The cuttings we received from China at the tail end of last year's season were beautiful," says Susie Raker, C. Raker & Sons. "Our main concern right now is the diminished quality we have seen in the cuttings we are receiving now. They are not up to the original standards that were initially set by this facility, probably due to the overworking of the stock to cover for shortages."
Falkenstein admits this year the initial cuttings are soft because the growers were trying to push them to be shipped by Week 45. But he says now Eastfields is getting back to the quality it achieved last year.
Amy Moore, Millstadt Jung Plants, says the cuttings she received from Eastfields in 2004 made her employees faster because of their uniformity and growth quality. "They were the best sized cuttings and very uniform," she says. "They stood up in the bags like 10 little soldiers. I just ranted and raved to Fischer about how nice they were."
|
