They started growing and selling tropical flowers!

GABON

Gildas and Daniel see life in green. These young entrepreneurs started 10 years ago a small activity of marketing natural decorative plants. With this action, they have responded favorably to the call of the country's authorities who would like more and more young people to embark on entrepreneurship. Today, they are proud to have come out of idleness.

Better known as the "Gildas and Daniel Brothers", because of their complicity and proximity, Moukagni Gildas and Minko Daniel, are among the first sellers who introduced the sale of natural flowers on the waterfront. Indeed, it was in early 2008 that these two young people embarked on the adventure of growing and selling ornamental flowers. Within a few years, Gildas and Daniel became true experts in floral art.

Every day, it is on the waterfront of Libreville, capital of the Gabonese Republic, between the Economic and Social Council (CES) and the Lycée National Léon Mba that Gildas and Daniel exhibit their multiple and magnificent compositions of flowers. Every morning they open their open-air shop with the ambition to share their "know-how" with more customers. Young florist growers learned very quickly to shape flowers while regularly bringing innovation to their presentations. For this, they are generally inspired by models seen on the internet or on specialized magazines to the delight of customers.

Both brothers are satisfied with their job. Not having prospered in studies, they found themselves unemployed for many years. Today; They explain that the craft of floral art has value. With the income from their activity, they manage to assume many family responsibilities. Indeed, life is better for them when customer demand is regular. This allows them to make interesting recipes. Per day, they earn an average of 40,000 CFA francs. Often, they reach revenues of nearly 350,000 CFA francs per week.

In addition, according to them, the natural flower has a bright future in terms of commercial, therapeutic and even ornamental exploitation. The flower has significant virtues. It has a good fragrance, it purifies the air by fixing carbon dioxide, it promotes the development of the mind, exalts the beauty of nature, attracts butterflies etc.

However, the difficulties faced by Gildas and Daniel are also numerous. The current economic crisis has strongly contributed to the fall in their revenues. Customers are increasingly rare. Production costs remain the same. Indeed, the maintenance of plants requires a lot of labor, water, fertilizers and means of transport. The fields are located in N'toum about fifty kilometers from Libreville. At least twice a week, it is imperative to organize the harvest and transport of plants to Libreville.

In addition, it is still sad to have to give up unsold plants. "We throw them in the trash and see several hours of work end up in a landfill."

Gildas and Daniel finally believe that the profession of florist remains very little valued. They hope to receive a little more support from the Government on their behalf. But still, they dream of one day seeing their business become a real small business and one day be able to export their products internationally.

Writing

Article first published on Artiaf on October 26, 2017