Flowers Continued from Page 3
after a market that will at least pay some- thing for your product,” Van Wingerden said. Those changes include “looking for varieties that do not take as much energy to grow and that produce more,” he said, as well as specialty varieties that are too delicate to travel from South America to U.S. markets. California growers have largely shifted to growing greenery and filler flowers, “the supporting cast,” Mellano said, for bou- quets centered around roses or carnations. Mellano has also changed his opera- tions. “We definitely aren’t growing the number of flowers that we used to grow,” he said. Previously, Mellano & Co. grew more than 30 different varieties. Today, “we’re in the neighborhood of 10 or 15, and we’re probably going to whittle that down to 10 or less,” he said. Despite the challenges California cut flower farmers face and the additional ob- stacles leading into Valentine’s Day, “over- all, the holiday was and will continue to be successful,” Mellano said. Last week, he said he was hoping for a break in the rain a few days before Feb. 14, to get into the fields and harvest flowers for shoppers in Southern California. “It probably isn’t too late for the local market,” he said. (Caleb Hampton is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at champton@cfbf.com.)
to get because of the storms,” Sanbo said. Flowers grown indoors have also suf- fered this winter. Rene Van Wingerden, owner of Ocean Breeze in Santa Barbara County, said dark skies hampered the growth of Oriental lilies and Gerbera dai- sies in his greenhouses. “Not seeing the sun slows down the crop,” Van Wingerden said. Despite con- trolling the greenhouse temperature, pro- duction typically declines by around 30% in the winter due to the lack of sunlight. It dropped off even steeper this year, he said. Van Wingerden added that it is more ex- pensive to grow flowers in the winter be- cause of the energy required to heat green- houses. “We actually don’t like Valentine’s Day,” he said. “Everything costs more, and the finished product is less. You add those up and there’s nothing left.” With limited supplies from California, wholesalers have filled the void with im- ports, primarily from South America. “As much as I love supporting California, I have to fill this place with flowers,” Staby said, “and I’ve got to get them somewhere.” Losing crops meant for the Valentine’s Day market is a blow for California farm- ers already struggling to maintain profit margins as input costs rise and imports undercut prices. Labor, fuel and materials have become especially expensive. But
A refrigerated room at Flora Fresh keeps bouquets fresh ahead of Valentine’s Day. After storms destroyed and delayed crops in Southern California, the wholesaler imported more flowers this year.
Van Wingerden said, “If I raise my price, they’ll go to imports.” U.S. cut flower farmers have struggled to compete with imports for years. In 1991, the U.S. Congress eliminated tariffs on agricultural products from four South American nations in an effort to incentiv- ize legitimate jobs outside coca production in countries plagued by the drug trade. Since then, the cut flower sector in Ecuador and Colombia has flourished, and many flower farms in California have scaled down their operations or gone out of business. “The flower industry got deci- mated,” Van Wingerden said. About 80% of
flowers sold in the U.S. are now imported. The dominance of imports is especially evident on Valentine’s Day. Roses, sym- bols of love and devotion because of the high price once paid for a single stem, were historically supplied to U.S. markets by do- mestic farmers, mainly in California. They are now almost exclusively im- ported from Ecuador and Colombia. Van Wingerden, who has grown flowers for half a century, planted his last rose more than 20 years ago. To stay in business, “you keep chang- ing, you keep modernizing, you keep going
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4 Ag Alert February 14, 2024
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