The Chain of Life Network is back in a streamlined, updated format with new university partners. The network is an online resource of floral production, post-harvest care and handling, and marketing information designed for every stage of the supply chain from breeders and growers to retailers. It was initiated in 2002 by George Staby, a former Ohio State University professor and researcher who heads the Perishables Research Organization in Elk Grove, CA.

The Kenya Flower Council flower announced that it will have a certification program in place for all players in the industry by the end of 2015. Jane Ngige, the council’s chief executive officer, told a news conference in Nairobi that the move will help the Kenyan flowers to meet the stringent rules of the importing nations.

All exporters of flowers in Kenya should demonstrate compliance to international standards by the end of 2015, Ngige said, as reported in a business newsletter. She said the Dutch government has provided $400,000 for implementation of the program.

Anna Ball, owner and chief executive officer of Ball Horticultural Co.; Virginia R. Walter, a professor and researcher at California Polytechnic State University; and Jerome Raska, a floral designer, speaker and teacher; were among those honored at the Society of American Florists annual convention in Phoenix in late September.

The World Floral Expo, which has been held in New York for the past two years and was in Miami for 10 years before that, will tour the United States offering shows in three cities on three days during one week in 2014, according to Dick van Raamsdonk, president of HPP Exhibitions Inc. in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which sponsors the annual show.

Laura Demaree Shinall has been named president of Syndicate Sales Inc., the family floral hardgoods supplier in Kokomo, IN, started by her grandparents in 1946. She succeeds her father, Del Demaree, who continues as chairman.

A graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, Laura Shinall has been in the floral industry for three decades with experience in retail and wholesale florist operations. She began her career as a wholesale floral supply manager at Kennicott Bros. Co. in its Milwaukee, WI, office.

“Supermarket buyers pay extremely close attention to margins and are catering to America’s very price-sensitive consumers,” said Alaina Paradise, owner of One World Flowers in Denver, stating why she thinks Fair Trade flowers have not caught on in supermarkets here. Since 2007, One World has imported Fair Trade flowers exclusively, currently from farms in Ecuador.