Aalsmeer Flower Auction
Colombia’s FlorExpo
The world’s cut flower market is dominated by two producers: the Netherlands and Colombia who together account for approximately 70% of the annual $49 billion dollar cut flower market. The Netherlands controls almost half of that trade and Colombia is the second largest producer with a 20% market share. Other large produces include Israel, Kenya, Italy, Thailand, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Guatemala and New Zealand though none of these account for more than 4% of global trade. Still, the principal global exchange remains that of the Aaslmeer Flower Auction in the Netherlands held daily that accounts for an estimated 35% of global sales. Of course, the Dutch floral trade dates back over 300 years.
The cut flower market, while global, is really three large regional markets dominated by the largest consumers of cut flowers: the European Community (Germany, the UK and France are the three largest consumers), the United States and Japan. Until the 1960s, the cut flower market was primarily a local one but air freight allowed global trade to flourish. Some Dutch flowers are sold in the United States and some Colombian flowers are sold in Europe but with freshness paramount in the trade, shipping long distances is generally avoided.
International trade is thus, to a large extent, organized along regional lines. Asia-Pacific countries are the main suppliers to Japan and Hong Kong. New Zealand sells 70% of its exports to Japan; Taiwan over 90%. Hong Kong’s principal suppliers are China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand. African and other European countries are the principal suppliers to Europe’s main markets. Kenya sends over 60% of its exports to the Dutch auctions and Zambia over 90%. The American market is primarily served by Colombia which accounts for 70% of all cut flowers sold in the United States. The US still has a few small domestic producers primarily in California.
The Colombian cut flower industry is one of the major development success stories of the last 40 years, growing from small beginnings in 1966 to the world’s second largest exporter of cut flowers by 1980. This rapid development has made the cut flower industry a major contributor to the Colombian economy. Cut flowers are now the nation’s leading nontraditional export and fourth largest earner of foreign exchange after coffee, coal, and bananas. The industry directly employs 250,000 people, most of them women. Indirectly, the Colombia cut flower industry is responsible for another 20,000 jobs. Here is a recent article by Nicholas Kristof on the Colombia FTA and the flower trade in the New York Times.
So this weekend while your bouquet of roses for your mother will make her smile, the chances are that it is also bringing smiles and profits to Dutch and Colombian growers.