Founded in 1967 in the Netherlands, Fides rapidly became an international player in the field of developing and producing flowers and plants. In 1975, the first fully owned farm started producing cuttings of Chrysanthemums in Brits, South Africa. Several preceding years of local co-operations provided sufficient insights to make production feasible for Fides, the product and the people.

This international venture has taught us some really good lessons on working in developing cultures. The internationalization continued to establishing six more farms on four continents and in all cases we have strived for the highest employee satisfaction, and took great care in preserving our given, natural resources. The following cases tell the stories of our propagation farms in Uganda, Guatemala, Kenya and Tanzania and our attitude towards social responsibilities.

Initiatives such as boreholes to provide water, support of a local elementary school and hospitals are part of our program. Environmental projects as waste collection, recycling irrigation, use of crop care and labor conditions has our attention as well. We find good labor conditions important. The salaries are above local standards, we take care of the health of the employees and we provide food and elementary school for employee’s children.