Bloom and bust: thinking of buying a St Valentine's day bouquet? Charles Orton-Jones examines the global trade in cut flowers and finds an industry struggling with emergent "super-growers", complex logistics and concerns about human and environmental costs.
| Author | Orton-Jones, Charles |
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"The media never write about the flower industry," says Andrea Caldecourt, head of the Flowers & Plants Association (FPA). "Yet flowers are as important as the music industry or diet products to the UK economy. We don't mind about that, though, because it lets us get on with the job without any interruptions."
She has a point. The press doesn't seem interested in the industry. Which is odd, not only because of its scale--it's worth 2.2bn [pounds sterling] a year in the UK alone--but also because it's so Machiavellian. The Ethiopians are trying to out the Kenyans out of business, Dubai's oil billionaires are gunning for the Dutch and the Indians nave just burst on to the scene, convinced that they can corner the market. The Japanese are creating odd varieties such as blue roses and red violets. And many producers are at odds with the green lobby and antipoverty charities. Poor sods such as the Channel Island growers, who for centuries have supplied freesias to the UK mainland, are being ruined in the newly globalised trade. Cut flowers is a cutthroat game.
Pistils drawn
Residents of the Scilly Isles can tell you just how brutal this trade can be. Half of the family-run flower businesses there have gone bust in the past 20 years. "It's been a bloody time for us," says Andrew May of Scented Narcissi, a wholesaler based on the main island of St Mary's. "There's been a seismic shift because of flowers coming in from the southern hemisphere. The consumer suddenly has a fabulous choice at very low prices. The range has increased extraordinarily. We are small producers with a niche product and we've got lost in the excitement."
The impact of cheap competition from east Africa has been severe on the islands' small economy. Ever since a ruddy-faced farmer named William Trevelick gathered 30 bunches of daffodils and sent them to London's Covent Garden Market in a hatbox for seven shillings and sixpence in 1870, the Scillies have become dependent on flower exports. One in ten of their 2,100 inhabitants works in the trade. Tourism, the islands' other main industry, uses the flower fields as a big visitor attraction.
"We can't increase our production to compete," explains May, who farms a 20-acre plot. "All our flowers are grown outdoors--no hydroponics here. And our fields are as small as a quarter of an acre."
But lately the Scilly growers have fought back against the mass producers by using clever marketing to differentiate themselves. "We have started growing unique varieties of scented narcissi," he says. "Many of them have been bred here, such as Hugh Town, named after our capital, and Island Pride."
Their plan is to persuade consumers to ask specifically for Isles of Scilly flowers. "To get our message across we have started communicating directly with customers using the internet," May says. "From a cold start we're now selling five per cent of our flowers online and we expect to have that up to 40 per cent in a few years."
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The growers are also asking florists to promote Scilly blooms. "We have...
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