From Flower&Horticulture Newspaper　　January 1st,2009

I wish you a happy New Year.
We hope you welcomed good time with joyful of 2009.

Last year, the flower industry was in low, additionally after autumn, a financial crisis and the economy were cooling of, we have never had such severe condition before.

Of course, Bulb flowers, we JFTA deal in, is not exception. Lily is a symbol of high-class cut flower, but total sales of lilies in the auction in 2008 in Japan, might be about 10% less than last year, around 25.000.000.000 yen. This amount is similar as just after Dutch lily bulbs became Q-free in the beginning of 1990s. We are feeling hard pain about this problem.

JFTA have supported “Ms. Lily” promotion (Last year Ms.Ryoko Hirosue who is a famous actress, and the theme lily was Casablanca.) was reported by many mass media.

Also, we participated in IFEX, appealed the domestic grown lilies, which is the highest quality in the world. We did promotions as much as possible, but unfortunately, we did not get good result of them.

So we had the first JFTA seminar with about 80 people, at the same time of IFEX, listened many opinion of several fields of flower industry to find the subjects, started review of the way of our business, activity of JFTA and state of the promotion from now on.

About lily, we appeal the customer to understand their magnificence, high image and good vase life, and will be in the top of flowers.

We will remake effective promotion to send our message to the customer and consumer.

About tulip, we will keep on the sales test which is organized by IBC(International Flower Bulb Center Holland) from 2008.We will check the data of it carefully and will suggest cutting stage, logistics, a line of products and how to display in the florist.

On the other hand, we will get strong relation with the flower growers, auction people, and try information transmission and expansion of consumption together with other organizations and groups.

We will restart with a sense of crisis furthermore, tell the fascination and value of bulb flowers, open a new market, we will survive heavy season.

We look forward to your kind understanding and cooperation.

Thank you

As the Chairman of JFTA(Japan Flower Bulbs Traders Association)　　Hiroshi Nakamura