When trying to do business with farms using civilized methods, you often come across actions that cannot be called anything other than intrigue.
Here are a few examples worthy of discussion.

Quiet removal of deficit varieties from confirmed ones

The farm comes out with an on-line offer, which contains both deficit varieties and varieties that either no one needs or can be bought cheaply at any time, without making much effort. The client selects several deficit items from the offer. The farm insists on “help”, that is, the farm asks to buy regular varieties to confirm deficit varieties. The client agrees. When the cargo departs, the client finds out that the farm actually sent only regular varieties it has asked help with, and did not send any deficit items. Such a trick works especially well when working with a big client, who may not notice the catch in a large flow of invoices.

Length manipulation

It often happens that a variety in high length (for example, 80 cm) is in very high demand, but the same shorter variety (70 cm) is practically not needed by anyone, and is always perceived by customers as a “cheap” item, a forced replacement, especially in the summer period. The farm sends an offer in which the desired variety is in the grade 80 cm, and in fact sends the client 60 cm or 60/70 cm. Of course, by means of claim, such an issue can be resolved, but what to do if the short position is not needed by the client at all?..

"Bad Weather"

The so-called “unfavorable weather conditions” syndrome manifests itself mainly during periods of extremely high demand for flower products. At this point, the client suddenly discovers that some key items of his standing or regular orders are not fulfilled by the farm. Confirmations of standing and regular orders from many farms come incomplete, and deficit items being extremely in demand at that moment, may not be fulfilled. Many farms start explaining it by “bad weather” that has caused a sharp decline in production. In fact, it is much more profitable for farms to sell deficit items on the open market at prices that exceed the pre-agreed prices of standing or regular orders. Particularly striking are the cases when a variety is not confirmed by a farm from a standing or regular order, and then the same position appears in the farm’s open market offer.

Accumulating flowers for holiday shipments

It’s a common practice for many farms when a week before starting holiday shipments, flowers completely “disappear” in the availability. Even standing and regular orders cease to be fulfilled. Flowers appear again as soon as holiday prices come into effect. During the holiday period, the products from such farms should be purchased especially carefully, or even better, avoided.

In conclusion, we will describe a case that may surprise even experienced flower business professionals. Once, in the period of extremely high demand for carnations, on the day of delivery of the cargo to the Bogota airport, one farm reported that it could not complete the previously confirmed order. The reason sounded very unusual. On the way to the airport, the truck was attacked by thieves and robbed. Such an unexpected justification of the farm at first simply shocked our logistics department, and later Kuehne Nagel (our transport agent in Bogota) confirmed the fact of the attack on the farm's truck. It turns out that such things also may happen.