Eco Rose Plantation

This is Eco Roses, a rose plantation right next door to our Hostel. One of the two largest in the local area, Eco Roses is a major supplier of roses to the US, while proclaiming a more environmentally friendly method of growing roses. It also is better for its workers, according to our guide who used to work there.
One of the reasons, I wanted to take a tour of the rose farm, is that roses in Ecuador is big business. They grow the roses in the greenhouses that are spread over many acres of land. Each worker is responsible for 40 rows of roses and each row is labeled with the workers name. This particular plantation employs 150 people and each greenhouse (there are 13 greenhouses) have their own soccer team as well!

The rose growing industry is one that is notorious for extreme pesticide use (to keep the afids away, I´m guessing) Anyhow, our guide, who is now the cook at the hostel, told us that the company now longer allows the workers inside the greenhouse when they are spraying, so I guess that is an improvement. The buckets on the right, are filled with citric acid for preserving the flowers after they are cut.