Many companies these days say they are "Farm Direct". What does Farm Direct really mean?
A Little History
The South American Flower Distribution Process
In years past, farms sold their product to foreign brokers. The foreign brokers then consolidated the product and sold it to brokers in the United States, typically in Miami. The Miami brokers sold the product to wholesalers, who in turn sold it to the retailers. Each entity along the chain would carry an inventory and attempt to sell that inventory. Often times a cheap price meant that someone had held their product too long and needed to rotate it. A number of wholesalers still receive product in this fashion. At the Seagroatt Companies we have taken a true "Direct" approach to ensure that we are not purchasing product that has been stored somewhere along the way.
Farm Direct vs. Wholesale
What is the Seagroatt Difference?
At the Seagroatt Companies, we have established relationships with the South American and California Farms to develop farm direct programs. Our buyers talk directly with the farms to place orders for your flowers. We even have a subsidiary in Columbia that can source product for us and verify the quality of the flowers before they are shipped. When the flowers arrive in Miami, they are immediately placed in refrigerated trucks and shipped directly to us. We then ship them to the retail florists in our refrigerated trucks. By maintaining the cold chain, you are guaranteed the freshest flowers available; from the people you know that you can trust - Seagroatt.
Reduce the Stress
Why the Seagroatt Direct Program is Better than a Fed-Ex based Farm Direct program.
Retailers and consumers are constantly being bombarded with requests to "buy direct". Before trusting your flower order to an unknown entity, you need to research to make sure you are really receiving better product. In many cases, the "direct" business is really just another broker selling stored product out of Miami.
The most important thing to consider when buying flowers is to ensure that the cold chain is maintained during the transportation process. Typically, when flowers are shipped via Fed-Ex or other overnight service, the temperature of the flowers fluctuates creating stress on the flowers and decreasing their longevity. Although the flowers may arrive sooner by an overnight service, they typically will not last as long as flowers shipped via refrigerated trucks where the cold chain has been maintained. If we all work together to maintain the cold chain, your customers will be more satisfied with you and your flowers. You can trust Seagroatt to deliver the freshest, truly farm-direct product without all of the stress on the flowers, or on you.
