It’s a sad sight: huge numbers of flowers being dumped in the giant flower markets of the Netherlands – the hub of Europe’s flower industry.
Now jobs in Africa’s key flower producing countries: Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, are being lost.
“The market situation is dramatic,” Steven van Schilfgaarde, director of Royal FloraHolland, said in a statement, adding that flower prices have nearly halved.
“Last Friday 20 percent of the supply had to be destroyed because there were no buyers. Forecasts for the next weeks are even worse,” he said.
This period is usually peak season for flower sales because of Mother’s Day celebrations in the United Kingdom and Ireland on March 22.
FloraHolland usually auctions 30 million plants and flowers a day, worth some 8.8 million euros ($9.8 million).
Africans pay the price
On Tuesday Business Insider carried this report.
Tonnes of flower export wither away in Kenya as hundreds of workers sent home
- Kenya is arguably the world’s flower garden and annually exports tonnes of freshly cut flowers to all corners of the world, more so to Europe.
- With the COVID-19 which has so far infected more than 182,400 people and killed over 7,100 worldwide, Kenya’s flower farms are on the receiving end.
- Flight cancellations coupled with the collapse of the Dutch auction has left farmers with no option but to dispose of flowers worth millions of shillings and close down various departments.
The thousands of patients infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) across the globe and admitted in solitary wards in hospitals will soon have nothing to cheer them up as the world’s flower garden slowly withers away.
Kenya is arguably the world’s flower garden and annually exports tonnes of freshly cut flowers to all corners of the world, more so to Europe.
With the COVID-19, which has so far infected more than 182,400 people and killed over 7,100 worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, rapidly spreading across the globe like wildfire, Kenya’s flower farms are now on the receiving end.
Hundreds of flower farm-workers have been sent home while thousands are staring at job losses as effects of coronavirus hit Kenya’s booming flower industry hard. Flight cancellations coupled with the collapse of the Dutch auction has left farmers with no option but to dispose of flowers worth millions of shillings and close down various departments.
“Farmers have had their orders canceled and many have opted to reduce their shipping or cancel it due to the uncertainty in the market.” said Kenya Flower Council (KFC) CEO Clement Tulezi, Standard Digital reported.
More than 500,000 people in the country depend on the trade according to the Kenya Flower Council, with roughly half of the country’s 127 flower farms concentrated around Lake Naivasha, around 90 kilometres northwest of Nairobi.
In Naivasha, workers have started the painful process of dumping ready flowers meant for export as others headed home with their fate unknown.
“The exports are fluctuating from day to day but the average export is 50 percent with the Dutch auction on Tuesday operating at 35 per cent,” KFC CEO said.
The flower industry in Kenya is a multibillion industry and last year alone raked in a total of Sh113 billion ($1.13 billion) and as of September 2018, the country had exported a total of 133 437 metric tonnes of flowers.
Nearly two-thirds of exports are destined for Holland, where they are resold to florists through auctions which present a safe avenue into the market for less seasoned growers.
However, with Europe now becoming the epicenter of COVID-19 after reporting more cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined, apart from China which has led to lock-down and flight cancellations, Kenyan flowers have been left to wither and die as farmers watch.
One such sad case is Maridadi flower farm in Naivasha where over a million stems of roses, which were destined for Holland withered in their dump composite site as the heap, rose by the day.
