AAA Growers: Trading digitally in an international market

For growers and buyers, doing business digitally is becoming increasingly important. Displaying availability, processing orders, monitoring market information and making logistics decisions: more and more parts of the trading process come together in Floriday. For AAA Growers in Kenya, the platform has become an important part of daily operations.

AAA Growers is a Kenyan grower with several divisions. Its floriculture activities include Bellisima, known for its premium roses grown at high altitude near Mount Kenya, and Forest Gate, which specializes in standard roses, spray roses and summer flowers. Together, the flower division covers approximately 100 hectares. The company supplies customers across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and other international markets.

For Moses Ndegwa, who works within AAA Growers’ supply chain and commercial team, Floriday is the system he starts his day with. The platform supports the team in managing auction supply, direct orders, availability, customer information and data analysis. As a result, Floriday is not only an operational tool for AAA Growers, but also a platform that helps facilitate the growth of international trade flows.

From auction sales to direct trade

AAA Growers has been using Floriday since 2020. Initially, the focus was mainly on operational processes such as uploading packing lists, creating auction supply and generating QR codes for shipments. Over time, usage expanded. The team also started managing the product catalogue, processing direct orders and using data to gain deeper insights into sales performance and customer behaviour.

This development aligns with AAA Growers’ broader commercial strategy. The company serves both auction customers and direct customers and has consciously worked in recent years to achieve a better balance between auction sales and direct trade. When Moses joined the company six years ago, approximately 80% of sales went through the auction and 20% through direct channels. Today, that ratio has shifted to around 60% auction sales and 40% direct trade. The long-term ambition is to achieve a 50/50 balance.

According to Moses, direct trade helps reduce dependence on a single sales channel. Floriday supports this transition by enabling growers and buyers to connect digitally, share supply and process orders in one place. For a company like AAA Growers, which serves customers in multiple markets from Kenya, this digital accessibility is a significant advantage.

FOB trade through Floriday

Since 2023, AAA Growers has also been using Floriday for FOB trade. FOB stands for Free On Board, meaning the grower remains the owner and is responsible for the products until they are loaded onto the means of transport at Nairobi Airport. This allows buyers to purchase flowers directly from the source while ensuring the trading process is digitally recorded.

AAA Growers now serves more than fifteen FOB buyers through Floriday. According to Moses, the number of buyers working this way continues to grow. The company also actively discusses Floriday with potential customers at international trade fairs. When a buyer is not yet purchasing through Floriday, AAA Growers encourages them to join if it fits their purchasing process.

Volumes are also developing positively. “In 2025, we shipped nearly one million stems through Floriday for FOB customers,” says Moses. “That number has increased every year.”

Insights into market performance and customer behaviour

In addition to order processing, data plays an increasingly important role in AAA Growers’ commercial operations. The team uses Floriday and the RFH Insights app to monitor market performance and support decision-making. Key areas of focus include:

• Sales performance by variety;
• Revenue per product group;
• Customer purchasing behaviour;
• Auction performance.

Moses does not focus solely on the results of a single day. Instead, he prefers analysing longer-term trends: “I usually look at seven days of data and compare it with previous years,” he explains. “That helps me understand whether a situation is driven by demand, quality or something else.”

AAA Growers uses this information to support assortment and sales decisions. For example, the team analyses which stem lengths or varieties deliver the strongest returns. If one stem length performs less well while another generates higher margins, those insights can be incorporated into future production and sales planning.

For growers, data-driven decision-making is especially valuable. They often operate at a distance from the end market and rely on up-to-date information about demand, pricing developments and customer behaviour. By making sales data, auction results and order information digitally available, Floriday and Insights help them respond more quickly and make more targeted decisions.

Daytrade and the Roses in Boxes experiment

In addition to FOB trade, AAA Growers also gained experience with Floriday Daytrade through the Roses in Boxes pilot. This initiative explores how the supply chain can be organised in a shorter and more efficient way. With Roses in Boxes, roses are packed into boxes at the source and shipped directly to customers. Unlike traditional auction flows, the flowers do not first need to be transferred to trolleys in the Netherlands before continuing through the supply chain. Instead, the roses remain in their original boxes until delivery to the buyer.

For AAA Growers, this was their first experience with Floriday Daytrade. Moses reflects positively on the project. “The supply chain became shorter and customers received fresher flowers,” he says. “Selling through Daytrade itself was straightforward and easy to manage.”

The pilot demonstrates how digital trading can support new logistics models. By organising supply, sales and fulfilment digitally, opportunities arise to get products to buyers more quickly and with fewer intermediaries. For international growers, this can be particularly attractive where freshness, speed and supply chain efficiency are critical.

Digitalisation is no longer optional

For AAA Growers, digitalisation has become a permanent part of the way the company operates. Not only within Floriday, but across the broader supply chain. Customers work with digital systems, orders are processed digitally and data is used to support commercial decision-making.

According to Moses, there is no turning back: “Digitalisation is no longer optional,” he says. “From the grower to the customer, more and more information is being exchanged digitally. You need to be part of that development.”

A platform for international growth

AAA Growers demonstrates how Floriday can support growers operating across multiple trading channels. The platform helps the company manage auction supply, direct sales, FOB trade, Daytrade, order processing and data-driven decision-making.

For Royal FloraHolland, this highlights the broader role of Floriday: a digital trading platform that supports growers and buyers, both nationally and internationally. By bringing together supply, orders, customer information and market data in one place, Floriday helps international trading partners work more efficiently and transparently.

As Moses summarises: “Floriday is accessible, fast and transparent. It helps us stay connected with our customers and gives us the information we need to make decisions every day.”