JAPAN UP CLOSE

TECH & CULTURE

AFRIKA ROSE, Bringing Beauty and Sustainability from Kenya

By Staff Writer
September 02, 2022
Exterior of Afrika Rose in Hiroo
AFRIKA ROSE sells Kenyan roses in Hiroo an Roppongi in Tokyo. It also produces wedding events with bouquets, decorations for the venue, and gifts. It also offers flower arrangement lessons. Ms. Megumi Hagiuda, the founder of AFRIKA ROSE, entered California State University in 2001, majoring in International Relations, and joined Eisai Co., Ltd. in 2005, after which she traveled travel to Kenya, Africa in 2011 to volunteer as a member of an NGO. She founded AFRIKA ROSE out of a desire to make a sustainable contribution to the region not as a volunteer but through business.
A selection of rose blossoms
Kenya is known as a producer of some of the finest quality roses. The wide differences in temperatures enable its highlands to grow resilient and large roses with vivid colors and delicacy. The size of many Kenyan roses are often 1.5 or 2 times that of common roses.
Roses on display in a flower shop
Sustainability is the core issue AFRIKA ROSE has chosen to tackle. It imports Kenyan roses from local rose farmers that follow the regulations set by the Kenyan government. Those regulations require the exporting farmers to work in a safe and decent environment, such as requiring workers to leave the greenhouses when pesticides are used and requiring workers to be provided with gloves when they harvest roses and the like.
Two women working in a rose farm in Kenya
The farmers reuse stems, leaves and flower petals that come off from the roses by composting them into fertilizer.
AFRIKA ROSE introduces other eco-friendly systems, including carbon offset fees to cancel the CO2 they produce with their business, and encouraging its employee to bring their own drink bottles rather than disposable ones.
A mother and daughter holding roses
AFRIKA ROSE is ambitious about sustainability as well. It aims to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted from the company's electricity consumption to zero, to recycle 100% of the garbage generated in the company, to encourage increased use of renewable energy sources and more, all while bringing the beauty from Kenya to Japan.
Afrika Rose shop in Roppongi
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