Grower News

Greytown flower growers Theo and Elsa Van der Put delivered a trailer load of gladioli and freesias to Wairarapa Hospital this week instead of letting it go to waste. Trustworthy, accurate and reliable news stories are more important now than ever. Support our newsrooms by making a contribution.

Contribute Now

Growers dumping flowers intended for export in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic are hoping for a Mother’s Day reprieve.

New Zealand’s $50-70 million export floral trade could wilt even if its main markets re-open soon because the cost of international freight has increased so steeply since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Growers have already reported dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of flowers during lockdown, but the industry warns worse may be yet to come.

New Zealand Flower Exporters Association chairman Mike Desmond said uncertainty in overseas markets meant the problems were sure to continue long after lockdown eased.

READ MORE:
* ‘It was bittersweet’: How Kiwis are celebrating their birthdays under coronavirus lockdown
* Remuera flower van a cornerstone of the community
* Fuchsia fever will take over Franklin in January
* Brad Markham: The growing problem with New Zealand’s floriculture industry

With an estimated 50 per cent of locally produced flowers heading overseas the impact could be “horrendous”, he said.

He said that it may not be until borders opened to overseas tourist that freight prices will drop low enough to make exporting worthwhile.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel and we have faith in our resilience. We will find a way, but we don’t know the way yet,” Desmond said.

Wairarapa grower Theo Van der Put, who grows gladioli and freesia for the domestic market, estimated his business had already lost around $150,000 worth of harvest from March alone.”For the lockdown to come right at the peak time really sucked.”They were pinning their hopes on an upswing in demand in level three and then level two a fortnight later.”It’s going to be very tough, but my gut feeling has been all the way through that there will still be a big demand for flowers,” Van der Put said.He expected that there would be weddings, funerals and people just wanting to express their love with flowers soon after the covid crisis was brought under control.”Mothers’ Day is huge for us. We plant for Mothers’ Day, we aim for it and we are hoping to be able to do a fair bit of business.”A Northland orchid grower, who did not want to be named, said his business was in a “very, very dire” situation and he was not sure he would survive into the next financial year.”If us growers can’t get through it, then we have to consider just closing the doors because you’re dealing with a living organism, you can’t just start back up.”He said the Government’s decision to push back relaxation of level four to level three means they may now have missed an opportunity to get flowers ready and distributed in time for Mothers’ […]

Source: Coronavirus: Mothers’ Day could be saving grace for beleaguered flower growers