The rose petal sweets sector is a thriving business in Romania.
Rose petal preserves, which used to be very popular, are back in fashion, and farmers who have businesses related to this preserve say they are doing well. Even though among European Union members only France, Italy and Bulgaria are important producers of rose petal scented oils, preserves and syrup, the business started picking up in Romania, even though it takes a lot of skill and passion.
Nicoleta and Dan Florea, a couple from Ucea de Sus, Brasov County, invested in a rose plantation five years ago. They bought an abandoned plot of land right outside the village, and planted there apple and pear trees, and also roses. They found the best variety for making sweets, the Damascus rose, with a powerful scent and heavy flowers, then got to work. Nicoleta Florea talks about the beginnings:
“We set up the plantation in the autumn of 2010, then got our organic certificate for it, which took three years of conversion, until 2013. In those three years, we processed the roses, making three kinds of products: rose petal preserve, rose petal syrup, and rose vinegar. We have a surface of 2000 sqm, which is not that large a surface, and we have 1,200 rose roots. We want to expand the surface, because the demand for our product is going up. From June to October we gather rose petals every day. They flower alternatively, and we have two varieties. On the Internet we found a farm in Buzau County providing rose roots. At first we tried to see if the soil was suitable, because it lies at the foot of the mountain. It worked, and now we have 1,200 roots. We had high yield from the very first year, much exceeding our expectations. We knew nothing about roses for sweets, and it was just a fortunate event that we thought about making this a family business.”
The Florea family started the business with their own money, because flower-relates businesses were not covered by European funds. After planting the roots, surprisingly, by late May most of the roses had bloomed. Everything was pink, and the scent of roses overwhelming. At the end of the farming season, before October, the yield was about 500 kg of petals, with the end product filling no less than 8,000 jars. One kilogram of petals yields 200 grams of preserve, which can fill 40 small jars. At first, the Florea family thought of selling the petals, but since they didn’t find buyers, they thought of making end products themselves. Right now they are very happy with their production, and want to expand their range of products. Here is Nicoleta Florea talking about it:
“In 2013, we made 23,000 jars of preserve, 1,000 bottles of syrup, and 3,000 bottles of vinegar. On top of these three products, we thought it would be a good idea to try more products, such as drying petals for tea, because roses have some miraculous properties, they have vitamins, help with a lot of diseases, such as asthma, high blood pressure and bad circulation.”
In the Florea family, everyone has their part in the business. Men take care of the farming works, women process the raw material, and children pick the petals. The initial investment was 10,000 lei, around 2,200 Euros, a rather small investment, and they got the return on that investment from the first year:
“This is a family business. We reinvest everything we earn. Starting this year, we can say that we have better profit than in previous years, because we already have the organic certificate. We had the great luck of falling under the tutelage of the Romanian Bio Association, which allowed us to sell our products in supermarkets all over the country. We have demand from abroad as well, but because we make small quantities, we decided to keep it in the country. However, because we plan on diversifying our products and expanding the cultivated surface, we might be exporting next year. In 2012, we took part in the Green Week events in Berlin, and in 2013 and 2014 we were present at the Biofach fair in Nuremberg, where our products were highly appreciated. We could export to China, Japan, Poland, Austria, but we don’t yet have large enough quantities. That left us pondering things, and we thought of setting up an association for growers of roses for sweets.”
The Florea family have even bigger plans, since they got European funds to expand their farm. The project, with funding worth 22,000 Euros, consists in buying machinery for setting up a 500-apple tree orchard. Right now, the little piece of heaven the family runs makes apples, rose petals, and even raspberries.
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