94 | March• 2018
WALL STREET OF FLOWERS
example – meant these low-cost pro-
ducers could also export globally.
It’s an effective combination and it
is eroding the flower market: in 2003,
Japan – one of the world’s top three
flower importers along with Western
Europe and the US – imported ten
per cent of its flowers from Colombia;
in 2013, that number had increased
to 26%, according to the Rabobank
study. By comparison, Japan’s import
of flowers from the Netherlands had
dropped from 8% in 2003 to just 2%
in 2013. The Dutch share of the global
flower market had dropped from 58%
in 2003 to 52% in 2013, with exports
going mainly to Germany, France and
the UK – still dominant, but shrink-
ing. And with growers able to dealsince the cooperative was founded in
1911 – ground to a halt.
A 2015 report on the market con-
ducted by Rabobank showed con-
sumer spending on flowers for the
previous five years had been ab-
solutely flat while customers were
drifting towards cheaper cut flowers
from supermarkets rather than spe-
cialist florists, due in large part to
constraints on disposable income in
the wake of the economic crisis.
Then there’s increasing competition
from low-cost flower-producing coun-
tries near the equator – Colombia, Ec-
uador, Ethiopia, Kenya and Malaysia
- all of which have lower production
costs. Better and cheaper transport –
improvements in sea containers, for
Perishable plants and blooms need to travel quickly through the cool supply chainPHOTOS: iSTOCK