different farms, agribusinesses, and processing facilities. We started off on the wrong foot, as our bus driver got us lost and almost 2 hours late to our first tour. Our first stop was at Veiling Hollambre-- one of the largest flower markets in all of Brazil. Here, nearly 500 flower buyers gather each day to bid on a variety of different native and exotic species. We got to walk through the thousands of racks of flowers, watch as buyers bid on flowers, and talk with a worker from the market.
From ther
e we visited a 25 acre greenhouse that produces many ornamental products to sell at the market. Gustavos--manager of the operation-- showed us several different species of palm trees, both native Brazil.. and others extremely rare brought back from other countries. Gustavos was a graduate of ESALQ-- the school we are studying at-- and in addition to a tour, he shared with us his career path, marketing and entreprenurial advice, and other information about trade and agriculture in Brazil.** left some cactuses in colorful pots, and right.. MUMS!
After leaving the greenhouse we switched industries, now on to citrus. We toured a seed generation and seedling facility. Here, they produced seedling for lime, lemon, and orange trees. We toured t
he greenhouses and learned about the bud grafting process for selecting dif
ferent traits. From there we stayed with the same group of guides and traveled on to a orange processing facility. Oranges are brought in by the producer, put in a special holding room to ripen, and are then cleaned , inspected, and package for delivery. Our last stop of the day was at a GIANT orange grove. We got to walk down into a valley, surrounded by orange trees, pick one off the tree, and ENJOY. The day in all was a definite VITAMIN C overload-- as at everystop we have oranges, orange juice and more- but definitely a very fun day!
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