Hansa Flowers, the second biggest flower producer and exporter company in Ethiopia says it has been engaged in various corporate social responsibility activities that benefit the local community.
The company manager Franklin Thomas said Hansa Flower has invested $200,000 birr and built elementary school in Holleta City, Oromia region of Ethiopia. He also told NewBusinessEthiopia.com that the company has also built 4 kilometers gravel road investing 75,000 birr.
In addition, the company also provides school kit to the children of its employees. The company has also been assisting the electrification and water supply for the dwellers living around the farms, according to the manager.
Reports show that many companies in Ethiopia are not so much engaged in discharging their corporate social responsibilities. Evidences from recent political unrest shows that many businesses have been attacked by some protestors, while few of those, which have taken corporate social responsibility seriously managed to be protected by the local community from attacks of the angry protesters.
The Dubai-based company established in 2014 with capital of $7 million has five flower farm sites in ten kilometers radius. The company has created job for some 2,000 Ethiopians on its 60 hectares of flower farms. The company is now planning to increase its farm size to 100 hectares and double its number of employees, according to Mr. Thomas.
Hansa Flower mainly exports its products to the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The manager says 50 % of the product goes to the Middle East especially to Dubai, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. The manager who indicated that Hansa Flower is making 5 to 6-million birr net profit annually, says two years ago the profit was 3.5 million birr. This year the company has paid a total of 9 to 10 million birr tax to the government, according to Mr. Thomas.
In an exclusive interview with NewBusinessEthiopia.com, Mr. Thomas indicated that Hansa Flower expects 50 percent annual growth for the coming years. But for that to happen says Mr. Thomas, Oromia region and the country in general needs to ease its bureaucracy and start providing one window shop service to investors.
Flower farms have been expanding in Ethiopia over the past few years recruiting over 70,000 employees and generating hundreds of millions of export earnings to the country. Meanwhile, official statistics shows that in the past few years the income from flower export has been declining.
Flower farms have been expanding in Ethiopia over the past few years recruiting over 70,000 employees and generating hundreds of millions of export earnings to the country. Meanwhile, official statistics shows that in the past few years the income from flower export has been declining. The flower export income of Ethiopia, which was around $265 million seven years ago has declined to about $208 million last fiscal year concluded July 7, 2019.