Visiting Aristides' farm: A traditional Colombian flowers grower
Our team visited Colombia in November 2025. During one of these visits, we had the pleasure of meeting Aristides de Jesús Ríos, a Colombian flower grower and silletero who has lived and worked in the countryside of Antioquia for almost his entire life. Together with his wife, he lives and works at Finca Silletera El Chagualo, located in Santa Elena, a rural area closely linked to Medellín’s floral traditions.
They welcomed us with incredible generosity, offering coffee and famous ‘buñuelos’ as we sat down to talk, before kindly showing us around the entire property.
Feria de las Flores, Silletas, and Silleteros
Aristides is well known in the region for his participation in the ‘Feria de las Flores’, one of Medellín’s most important cultural celebrations where people from around the world come to witness.
Held every year since 1957, this event honors the agricultural roots of Antioquia, celebrating flowers not only for their beauty, but also for their role in local history, identity, and community life.
During this event, the flowers are in charge of bringing color and joy. At the heart of the event are the silletas; large wooden frames entirely covered with flowers and carried on the backs of silleteros. Designed over several months, each silleta combines artistic expression with physical endurance, as some can weigh more than 80 kilograms.
More than a spectacle, silletas are living symbols of the region’s farming heritage.
As a silletero, Aristides is an artist, a grower, and a carrier of tradition. This knowledge is passed down within families, and today it is Freddy, his son, who continues this legacy.
For them, silletería is not just an event, but a way of life that connects family, land, and culture.
Statice: A Flower That Sustains a Family
The family’s main flower is Statice (Limonium sinuatum), which has become both their economic foundation and their form of artistic expression. Statice is a demanding flower that requires greenhouse cultivation, precise irrigation, and constant care to prevent disease.
Over the years, Aristides’ family has become one of the most recognized Statice growers in the region. They are deeply grateful to this flower, as it provides them with peace of mind, knowing that their work can sustain their family and that, through patience and care, the land continues to give back. Statice has become a quiet source of stability, allowing them to live from their floricultural work.
Relationship with nature and climate change
Aristides’ family work is guided by patience, respect for the land, and a deep connection with nature. He believes flowers are living beings that respond to care and attention, and he often speaks to them as part of his daily routine.
Flowers, he explains, accompany people through life’s most important moments such as celebrations, losses, and everyday expressions of love. Knowing that his work brings joy and comfort gives meaning to the physical effort of farming.
Environmental care is essential for Aristides and local farmers, as for him without water, there is no life. At the same time, he has witnessed the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures have altered growing conditions, forcing him and Freddy to adapt their practices and rethink how they grow.
Agrochemicals and Raising Awareness
Aristides and colleagues have increased the use of agrochemicals in the last couple of years. While large-scale organic production remains difficult under today’s market demands, especially for flowers that must meet strict visual standards, and are hard to grow without greenhouses, there is now greater awareness of the health and environmental risks involved.
In his early years, this awareness did not exist. Aristides recalls working with pesticides without protection and little information, considering he is “still alive by miracle.” Today, with support from the Municipality of Envigado, farmers receive training to reduce the use of the most dangerous chemicals and adopt safer practices, such as wearing gloves, long sleeves, and paying close attention to weather conditions, such as wind and heat, when fumigating, in order to reduce direct exposure.
Although Aristides and Freddy have not suffered serious health problems themselves, they have witnessed the long-term effects of chemical exposure on workers in large, export-oriented farms. They explain that respiratory illnesses, cancer, and mobility issues, especially affecting the hands, are common among those workers. Freddy adds that the higher the demand, the higher the chemical use. Large corporations may fumigate three or four times a week to meet export requirements, while Freddy fumigates only once, over approximately three hours, to cover around 4,000 square meters of land.
A message for Dutch growers
When asked if he had a message for Dutch flower producers, Aristides shared this reflection:
We know that pesticides are necessary, but we should always try to improve the products we use and prioritize our health and the health of others. We should always look for the benefit of all humanity, and that benefit should be measured through health.
To close, Aristides shared a well-known hymn to health, deeply rooted in local culture:
Health is the well-being of the mind,
health is the well-being of the body,
health is having, always,
personal and social well-being.
Food, clothing, and shelter,
vaccines, medicine, and the sun,
soap, exercise, and water,
when used well, protect us.
Conclusion
This visit helped us understand why Medellín is known as “the City of flowers.” Behind the international celebration of the Feria de las Flores, there are local farmers like Aristides and Freddy, whose daily work is rooted in care for the land, family collaboration, and respect for tradition.
Their story reminds us that each silleta carries more than flowers; it carries a way of life shaped by patience, resilience, and a deep connection to tradition.
"Tackling Gender Inequality and Sustainability in Agribusiness" is one of the signature projects that are part of the strategic theme "Pathways to Sustainability"