Project Phoenix: How we're transforming post-harvest operations at Naranjo Roses

Phoenix was born out of a very concrete need: to integrate and standardize our post-harvest processes. For years we operated with separate processes across our farms, and that meant duplicated efforts, resources that weren't fully optimized, and an operation that, while it worked, wasn't prepared for the growth pace we've set for ourselves as a group. Phoenix is our answer to that: a centralized post-harvest operation, more efficient, more innovative, and with the capacity to scale alongside us.

Unifying the work of our two farms under a single post-harvest operation isn't simply about combining infrastructure. It means working as one system: teams, processes, technology, and quality standards aligned under the same parameters. Until now, each farm developed its own operational logic, with its own timelines and its own standards. That created variability, and variability is exactly what a demanding client won't forgive.

With Phoenix, we're aiming for the opposite: greater coordination between teams, more efficient use of resources, and above all, consistency in the final product. A rose shipped on a Tuesday should have the same quality, the same handling, and the same standard as one shipped on a Friday, regardless of which of our farms it originally came from.

Designing the flow before the infrastructure

One of the most important lessons from this project was understanding that infrastructure alone solves nothing if the flow behind it isn't well thought out. Before a single wall went up, we sat down to design how the flower needed to move through the new post-harvest facility: what path it had to follow, at what point quality decisions were made, and where bottlenecks occurred in the previous setup.

The goal was clear from the start: optimize time, reduce unnecessary movement, and minimize handling of the flower. Every time a stem is moved more than necessary, there's a risk of quality loss. So we designed a continuous, orderly, and controlled process that preserves the flower's condition from the moment it leaves the farm until it's ready for dispatch. It's not an exaggeration to say the flow was, in many ways, the real engineering project behind Phoenix — the infrastructure came afterward, to serve that flow.

Capacity built for growth, not just for today

The new post-harvest facility will have a capacity of approximately 260,000 stems. That number didn't come from looking only at our current operation, but from projecting where we want to take Naranjo Roses in the coming years. We designed the infrastructure with enough flexibility to keep evolving, because the last thing we wanted was to build a solution that fell short as soon as we got past the initial learning curve.

Where the innovation really lies

If you ask me what's most innovative about Phoenix, my answer isn't a specific piece of equipment or a particular machine. It's the integration. Phoenix brings together infrastructure, technology, and information to make processes that used to live in a more fragmented way — receiving, classification, hydration, cooling, storage, bouquet assembly, and dispatch — far more efficient.

Each of those processes can be optimized on its own. But the real leap happens when all of them run under a single system, with the same logic and the same traceability. That's what allows us to make faster, better-informed decisions at every stage, instead of operating in silos.

Beyond the capacity figures or the flow design, what we're pursuing with Phoenix is a more efficient operation, more standardized processes, and real consistency in the quality of our flower. But if I'm honest, the indicator that matters most to us isn't internal: it's the satisfaction and trust of our clients. That is the true meaning Phoenix holds for our clients.

In the end, all of this effort — the integration, the redesign of the flow, the investment in infrastructure — has a single purpose: that when a client receives a box of Naranjo Roses, they know exactly what to expect, with no surprises, no variations, regardless of which part of our operation that flower came from.

A new chapter

Phoenix isn't just an infrastructure project. It's a new chapter for Naranjo Roses. It represents process integration, real innovation in the way we work, and a vision with a very clear north star: exceeding our clients' expectations, season after season. We're convinced that this post-harvest transformation will make a real difference in how we continue growing as a floriculture group in the years ahead.