Colombia has a wide diversity of native tropical flowers and foliages. The production of flowers has been based on agricultural systems that contain a wide diversity of native species. Most of the production of flowers is based on agriculture following organic standards.*

Nativa Tropical is a business venture based on the production, commercialization and distribution of tropical flowers. Nativa Tropical was originally set up as a Rocha family association among three sisters and a brother. The venture's main product line is to provide bromelias, heliconias and orchids, which are beautiful and exotic plants, to its clients. The venture has also started a secondary business line to sell products from the broader floral industry. These related products include flowerpots and decorative elements, which are made by rural communities that work with different types of materials, including  regular wood, bamboo-like wood (guadua) and whickerwork.

Nativa Tropical's main goal is to position itself as an organic bio-commerce company. They produce flowers in an environment free of chemical products, such as pesticides and fertilizers. Nativa Tropical is an incubatee of the Agroinnova Business Incubator, a member and grantee of infoDev's Global Network of Business Incubators.

This interview was carried out in January 2009 with Ms. Alma Rocha, one of the founders of Nativa Tropical.

Is this the first company that you have started, and what drove you towards it?
Yes, this is our first company. It started out as a hobby with tropical flowers, as over the years we have been sowing and collecting many of them in our own yards. After some time, we realized that we could consolidate our family interest in tropical flowers and use it as an interesting and enjoyable way to make additional income!

How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it/will it take for the company to become self-sustainable?
We were able to start up our business venture by using our own family resources. Our goal is to apply for a loan or credit line in the short or mid-term, so that we can cover the necessary investments into increased flower production capacity to meet increasing orders from our clients. We are planning and hoping that in two years we will have enough capacity for production and cultivation for becoming self-sustainable.

What are your major products and services and how are they unique in your business sector? What is your competition?
Our major product line is the production, commercialization and dissemination of decorative tropical and exotic plants. At the moment, we have a permanent production of bromelias, a flower which can last for 3 months or more. In addition to the bromelia, we commercialize two species of orchids (dendrobios and phalenopsis) as well as heliconias, a long and pretty tropical flower. These three tropical flower species are characterized by their duration and beauty. They are widely used as decorations in offices, hotels, social rooms, restaurants, houses and apartments.

Our unique selling point in contrast to similar business ventures is that we have a larger variety of flowers: we commercialize more than 65 different kinds of bromelias, several types of orchids among the dendrobios and phalenopsis, and almost 25 classes of heliconias. This gives us the opportunity to offer a wide range of product prices as well, and access to flowers at a lower or higher cost for our clients according with their preferences. Furthermore, we are creating a "collection culture" in our city in terms of flowers: we count with exclusive plants that, because of their uniqueness, gives to Nativa Tropical, that same attribute.

Nativa Tropical is located in a central shopping mall in Santiago de Cali, and gives us the possibility to get close to our clients - whereas other nurseries for plants are scattered around the city in non-strategic areas.

We also believe in the high quality of our products. We care for our produce throughout the entire value chain - from sowing to production and the selection of our suppliers.

How did you first launch your product/services?
We started by selling the flowers from home, but the formal business launch happened when we opened our point of purchase in the shopping mall. We took advantage of the gardens that surround us there, and we actually "adopted" them so that we are now responsible for their decoration. This makes the gardens a showcase for our flowers and helps with business promotion and publicity! Since our store opening at the mall, we offer our products in exclusive hand-madeflowerpots, which also helps to employ craftsmen from rural communities. Besides store sales, we have participated in several fairs and events in malls and important hotels.

How do you measure the success of the company?
For now, we rely on the approval from the customers as a measurement of success, including the numbers of flowers sold per day/week/month, as well as how these numbers have been growing since our launch. We also track the number of new clients who are now coming to us thanks to the referrals of existing clients.

Who are your clients and how many do you have? How are you focusing on expanding your user community?
Our clients are the shopping mall visitors, who represent the middle and upper class of our society. Most of our customers are more than 20-years old, from housewives to professionals, who all share a taste for floral decorations. In terms of numbers for clients in the bromelias and orchids category, but we have an average of 5 flowers sold per day, translating into approximately 150 clients per month. In terms of heliconias, we sell these to 10 florist stores in Popayán.

What was the biggest challenge in starting an innovative business in your country and how did you overcome that?
Our biggest challenges are economic and environmental. The economic challenge is an issue that affects most of the local business ventures: Colombia does not offer enough tools for entrepreneurs who are willing and trying to explore new business fields and set up their own company. On the environmental side, we are living in a society that is predisposed to using chemical pesticides and fertilizers in farm work. Nativa Tropical is then left with the "homework" of learning new and innovative methods for production chemical-free flowers for bio-commerce. We are in the process of learning how to produce our own fertilizers to reproduce the plants in high quality, all the while caring for the environment.

Who are the shareholders in your company?
The shareholders are the founders of Nativa Tropical: Alma, Cecilia, Myriam and Aureliano Rocha.

How did you learn about business incubation opportunities in your community?
We were actually quite lucky to come across the possibility of incubating our venture at Agroinnova. We were in the offices of Cámara de Comercio del Cauca [Cauca Chamber of Commerce], where Agroinnova was established as a business incubator for small business development. The original reason for our visit there was to legally register Nativa Tropical, but then we saw an advertisement about Agroinnova and immediately went to get more information about it. A few days later, we delivered our project proposal to Agroinnova, seeking their approval to provide us with business development services - and we made it! They were very interested in what we were doing, and so it was just a matter of time before we began to work together.

How have you benefited from business incubation? (E.g. infrastructure, knowledge development, networking with other businesses/traders, other)
The main benefit that Agroinnova has provided to us is knowledge. We have received advice from professional consultants as well as training in administrative and financial issues. Besides this, Agroinnova has helped us to carry out marketing research on bio-commercial companies in three cities (Cali, Popayán and Pasto), provided guidance on the legal constitution of companies, and given us advice on the organizational structure, roles and functions that are specific to Nativa Tropical. We have also attended seminars on the prognosis, planning, and budgeting of events.

Of course, other big benefits from business incubation include networking, help with logo design, trademark registration, and bar code implementation. These services are being administered by Agroinnova in cooperation with the Cauca Chamber of Commerce and its SME Fund.

With hindsight, are there any particular lessons or messages that you wish you would have known when you started up your company, and which you would like to share with fellow entrepreneurs?
We think that one of the most important lessons to pass on is that before starting a company, you have to be conscious of the fact that you will be involved in a long process, which requires patience, dedication, organization and a real effort. A business venture cannot be considered as a short-term project - most certainly so if you want to make it a success!

Do you feel that you had the necessary advisory and support network when you started your company?
When we went to Agroinnova, our project had already started. But the support and continued guidance from Agroinnova has been very important in making big, successful steps for our company growth.

What is your message to supporters (financial or otherwise) and what is your message to the users of your product? 
We are thankful to our supporters and especially to Agroinnova for the opportunities given to us and for all the new knowledge and experience that we have received, walking hand-in-hand towards business creation and success. We hope that many other business ventures will have those same possibilities that were extended to us.

We would also like to thank the users of our products and for their continued trust in our tropical flower product line. That is the biggest motivation that we can have!

* Information about Colombia flowers and foliage from the Biotrade Initiative website.