2020 has been the year of innovation , business enterprise evolution and striving for fresh clientele solution within the unpredictable COVID-19 landscape painting .
This year United Flower Growers face a grownup challenge - how do they support the industry in amongst the chaos of a global pandemic and continue to provide a platform in which it can both originate and thrive ?
United Flower Growers ( Auctions ) started in the 1980s after a group of NZ agriculturalist wanted to provide a fairer platform for flower auctioning using the Dutch Clock system of rules . Over the years this has morph and developed into both an forward-looking online ' cloud ' auction system that compliments their traditional ' in - house ' Dutch clock auction bridge . The online ' cloud ' auction enable buyer to lumber in remotely and buy their intersection online . Through this modern scheme United Flowers Growers was able to continue to supply all of their buyers with fresh cut flowers and foliage from the comfortableness and refuge of their home during NZ ’s merry Level-3 ' contactless ' trading time period .
The outbreak of COVID-19 stimulate the UFG team to arrive together and create new ' pandemic specific ' action plans and solution for the industry to gain from . Some of these included new wellness and safety protocols , remote working for their elderly teams , and the hygienic management of the new intersection supply concatenation . ensure that the online ' cloud ' auction bridge ready for all vendee nationally to admittance meant that UFG needed to invest further into their outside auction technology . This was the first fourth dimension in UFG ’s history that every single buyer would be using their online program to purchase on auction bridge , a monolithic pressure test for the system to undergo .
With sure floral blood line taking year to grow and develop , UFG feel a tariff to agriculturist to be able to provide them with selective information and guidance when the rural area went into its full Level-4 lockdown earlier this yr . Many raiser were unsettled on what they could or could not do so as to protect their crop from fail while all NZ business view as ' non - essential ' were tell to stop operate . Reaching out to government agricultural heads for specific ' floriculture ' protocol allowed clearness so that growers were able to retain care for their crops safely .
Go ' behind - the - scenes ' at United Flowers Growers and hear about how they remained resilient in 2020 by adjust their job through changes to auctioning product , investment into technology and provide a political platform for the NZ floriculture industry .
For more information : New Zealand Flowers Weeknzflowersweek.co.nz
