Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-04-20)

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BloombergBusinessweek

FlowercartsattheNaaldwijk

auctionhouseintheNetherlands

werecanceled,restaurantsclosed,andofficesemptied,

demandforstemsevaporated.

Thecrashofthe$8.5billionglobaltradeincutflowers

showshowquicklyanddistinctivelythenewcoronavirus

is disruptingsupplychains,eveninplaceswhereit isn’tyet

pervasive.Afteronlya fewweeksofquarantine,Vermont

farmersaredumpingmilkinmanurepitsbecauseofcan-

celedordersfromschools.CropsarewitheringinEurope

asclosedborderspreventmigrantfarmworkersfromhar-

vestingthem.Americanchickenwingpricescrateredbefore

what’snormallya MarchMadness-drivenboom.InIndia,

farmersareunloadingripeninggrapesatone-sixththeusual

price.It’sanopenquestionwhether,whenconsumersstart

spendingagain,theirformersupplierswillstillbearound

toselltothem.

OneofthefirstpeopleDeantextedaftershepostponed

herweddingwasherfloraldesigner,LauraClare,whoworks

fromthefirstfloorofa quaintgraybuildingwithwhitetrimin

Bernardsville,N.J.Clare,who’sbeeninbusinessfor 20 years,

sellsbouquetsduringtheweek,andonweekendsshedesigns

elaboratearrangementsforbigevents.Herweddingclients

typicallyspendfrom$5,000to$10,000.

DeanwasoneofthefirstbridestocontactClareafterthe

CDCrecommendation.Withina fewdays,allClare’sclients

planningAprilweddingswerescramblingtopickdatesinthe

fall.Shehadtotellbridesthatsomeflowers, such as cherry

blossoms, might not be available then. Soon, as the number

of Covid-19 cases in New Jersey passed 1,000, the governor

ordered all but essential businesses to close. Florists didn’t

make the cut.

With her supply wilting, Clare started giving bouquets away,

delivering some to older parishioners at a local church. She fur-

loughed her five full-time employees and canceled her flower

orders, which usually total at least $5,000 a week. She’s apply-

ing for a Small Business Administration loan that would let her

put her workers back on the payroll. “I’ve been through 9/11,”

Clare says. “I’ve been through Hurricane Irene, Hurricane

Sandy. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Van der Meer

at Naaldwijk

FLOWERS ARE USUALLY ORDERED ABOUT TWO WEEKS IN

advance, so Clare hadn’t yet placed orders with her whole-

saler in New Jersey for Dean’s wedding. But she’d been plan-

ning to request some hard-to-find blossoms from an auction in

the Netherlands. More than 40% of the world’s flower exports

pass through that country’s auction houses.

The flower trade is a miracle of modern capitalism. A

chain of cold storage starts with stems being picked in places

as far-flung as Africa, the Middle East, and South America,

then packed into refrigerated trucks, driven to refriger-

ated planes, and flown to Amsterdam to be auctioned off.