Valentine blues for flower exporters
February 13, 2009
By Gonzalo Solano
The smell of roses may be fainter in the US during this year's Valentine's Day.
Ecuador's flower shipments to the US were down 23 percent so far this year in what was normally the peak season, Gonzalo Luzuriaga, the president of Expoflores, the country's main growers' association, said yesterday.
In one indication of American frugality hitting Valentine's Day sales, 1-800-Flowers.com said in January that it expected revenue to fall 10 percent in 2009.
Demand has also plummeted in Russia, which has been hit even harder by the global economic downturn, according to Carlos Vallejo, the president of Ecuador's central bank.
Exports from Colombia of air-freighted roses, carnations and other flowers may also be down, but officials there say it is too early to say for sure.
"There's great uncertainty," said Augusto Solano, the president of Asocolflores, Colombia's principal flower growers' group.
He said Colombia's flower exports fell by about 1.3 percent in 2008.
Zero growth was the best his group expected in 2009.
Solano said 60 percent of the roses sold in the US for Valentine's Day came from Colombia, and 92 percent of the carnations, as well as 93 percent of the chrysanthemums.
Colombia produces about 77 percent of US cut flower imports and Ecuador 17 percent.
While demand from Europe was up 17 percent this year, Luzuriaga said, overall exports were down 15 percent. Ecuador sold flowers worth $523-million (about R5.16-billion) from January to November 2008, but its central bank predicts sales will fall by $150-million in 2009. - Sapa-AP
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