From January 1, 2020, there will be one product group for Dianthus in the garden plants. All Dianthus house plants product codes will be transferred to the Dianthus garden plants product group (3 09 024 01).

From 1 January 2020, the grading codes are as follows:

On 1 May 2019, there will be a change in the VBN product specification for Celosia cristata.

In the summer of 2018, the Post-Harvest Knowledge Centre has carried out verification testing to ascertain whether the Florissant 810, Florissant 830 en Chrysal Grow 20 products complies with the VBN norms for the pre-treatment of Celosia cristata. Research has revealed that all of the conditions have been met, and this products can be added to the obligatory products in the VBN product specification for Celosia cristata.

Change:

• Florissant 810, Florissant 830 en Chrysal Grow 20 are being added as approved products for the pre-treatment of Celosia cristata (Florissant 810 code 21 on the product’s label, Florissant 830 code 41 and Chrysal Grow 20 code 20).
• You must state the correct code of the pre-treatment product in your supply information. With this code the laboratory can check that the pre-treatment product is being used correctly.
  • The grading code S65 pre-treatment must be added in your EDF software package.
  • Under the grading code S65, you must select the correct pre-treatment product using code 21 on the label of the product for Florissant 810, code 41 for Florissant 830 and code 20 for Chrysal Grow 20.

This products are exclusively for use as prescribed in the instructions for use.

The number of stems per bunch (L11) is information that has become more important to buyers over the years. The request to supply this information with cutflowers is becoming more frequent by the day. Two important reasons for this are:

• It prevents mistakes in the logistical process of buyers;
• It simplifies the sale of cutflowers via webshops.

Supplying this information leads to lower costs for buyers/customers, more satisfied consumers and ultimately better pricing and more revenue. To get there it is necessary that suppliers present this information by default. Only then can buyers accurately set up their processes.

For these reasons the number of stems per bunch (L11) will be made a mandatory characteristic code on position 5 for all cutflowers. This proposal has been approved by the VBN Regulations Steering Group. For most cutflowers L11 will be advised from the 1^st of october 2018 and mandatory from the 1^st of January 2019. Note that if cutflowers are supplied unbunched code 001 has to be entered for trading code L11.

Suppliers will receive emails with additional information regarding what will change specifically for their products. Also a list with all product groups and the corresponding changes can be consulted.

We recommend suppliers to contact their software supplier to initiate the changes mentioned above. All existing grading codes can be consulted on the Floricode website.

The number of stems per bunch (L11) is information that has become more important to buyers over the years. The request to supply this information with cutflowers is becoming more frequent by the day. Two important reasons for this are:

• It prevents mistakes in the logistical process of buyers;
• It simplifies the sale of cutflowers via webshops.

Supplying this information leads to lower costs for buyers/customers, more satisfied consumers and ultimately better pricing and more revenue. To get there it is necessary that suppliers present this information by default. Only then can buyers accurately set up their processes.

For these reasons the number of stems per bunch (L11) will be made a mandatory characteristic code on position 5 for all cutflowers. This proposal has been approved by the VBN Regulations Steering Group. For most cutflowers this applies from the 1st of January 2019. For Lilium L11 will be advised from the 1st of August 2018 and mandatory from the 1st of November 2018. The list shows what will change per productgroup.

We recommend that suppliers contact their software supplier to initiate the changes mentioned above. All existing characteristic codes can be consulted on the Floricode website.