The spring and summer months are an exciting time of year at Botanicoir as we work to build up our stocks and production plan for the busy Northern European season. Building stocks is no mean feat with the unpredictable weather and of course this year there have been other challenges to handle as well. That said, despite being unable to operate effectively for weeks on end, the team in Sri Lanka have now been able to pull together and get us up to the stock levels that we would expect to have at this time of year, helped enormously by the dryer which gives us a great advantage when drying material under adverse weather conditions. It follows that with stock building starting earlier, come challenges of where to put all the material. Although we suffered some inevitable delays earlier this year, we have now increased our storage capacity so we can keep churning out dried material and store it in our warehouses, ready to go straight into production.
Due to these challenges with stock we are constantly asking customers to give us an idea of their requirements in plenty of time, and where possible to take early delivery so we can avoid some of the bottle necks that occur later into the season. This year was no different and we were delighted to have seen the first containers head off to a UK strawberry grower, leaving Sri Lanka on 18th July. From here on out we will be working tirelessly to make sure that our UK and Northern European customers receive their products in plenty of time for the growing season.
Having now gained 15 years of experience, we are no strangers to the challenges that international trade, unpredictable weather, changes of plans and worldwide logistics can bring. And more recently we can add global pandemics to that list. We can say without a doubt that we would not be able to support our growers in the way that we do without the incredible hard work that our partners put in. In the UK, that is Agrovista, in Poland it is Agronom, in the USA it is Doublethumb, and the list goes on. There are too many to mention all by name, but as we leave our 15th anniversary behind us, we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of those partners who have supported us over many of our 15 years – we couldn’t do it without you!
