‘I love you’, ‘I care for you’, or simply—’you are a great friend’.
Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion to show your partner, family or friend just how special they are. Flowers have a long history of being the ideal gift whether you are celebrating 30 years of marriage, have just started to date someone or want to show your friend you appreciate them.
“The beauty of flowers as a Valentine’s Day gift is that they can easily be personalized depending on how you want to make someone feel” said Dejan Kristan, marketing director at Flowers Canada (Ontario). “You want to send out the right message to your Valentine, whether it is ‘I love you’, ‘I care for you’, or simply—’you are a great friend’”.
Red: Undoubtedly the colour of passion. Giving out a red flower arrangement will communicate your strong and powerful love. With a colour the same as the heart, red means seduction, desire and passion. Try red roses, red gerbera daisies or red tulips.
Valentine’s Day breaks records Again
Valentine’s Day is celebrated in many countries and is an important holiday for the flower industry. For weeks, growers, importers, cargo agencies and auctions were busy delivering the flowers on time at their destination.
In the US, billions of flowers were flown into the country and most arrived in Miami from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and the Netherlands. More than 90 percent of imported flowers move through Miami International Airport.
Also Kenya exported many flowers this year and even exported a record number of roses to Australia this Valentine’s Day. ABC News reported that figures from the Federal Department of Agriculture show that Australia imported more than 9 million rose stems this month, with the majority sourced from Kenya. In February, more than 5.22 million rose stems were imported from Kenya, up by nearly 850,000 roses in the same period last year. It is understood to be a record for the Kenyan rose trade to Australia
Valentine’s Day 2017: More or less sales?
Since 2014, Valentine was finally celebrated on a weekday; a Tuesday. This provokes the question: was it profitable for the flower business or not? Generally, it can be noticed that many flower importers and florists were positive about this.
High expectations
The demand for Isreali Rusci a Colombian grower; Valentine’s Days on a weekday are often advantageous for people in the flower industry. “It often results in better sales”, he says. Kenyan rose grower Peter Viljoen of Sunland Roses, who exports roses all over the world, adds: “I think that people, and men in particular, are probably more on the street on a weekday and then more easily pass by and enter a flower shop.”
Also the Australia cut flower and foliage industry is excited about this year’s Valentine’s Day.
High prices
And the high demand led to high prices and this is visible at the Dutch FloraHolland auction. On the preceeding Friday, the auction’s CEO, Lucas Vos announced a record price for the Red Naomi rose at the auction. He posted the following message on Twitter: “Today, Red Naomi sold for 5,95 euro. How much will it be in retail?”
Valentine’s Day 2017: facts and figures
Valentine’s Day, the turnover was € 142 million. This is the highest turnover ever recorded in the history of Royal FloraHolland. FloraMondo also realised a new turnover record. Almost €6 million were traded via FloraMondo. Valentine’s Day is more a flower event than a plant event. The flower turnover was almost €100 million, the highest ever turnover for flowers in one week. Turnover grew by 9% compared with week 6 in 2016. The number of items declined by 5%, while the average price rose by 15%.
300 million stems
Of the total supply of 300 million stems of cut flowers, one-third consisted of roses, onethird of tulips and one-third for the rest of the assortment. The supply of tulips and roses was under pressure: the supply of roses decreased by 8%, the supply of tulips by 11%. The majority of the roses came from abroad, only 20% of the total supply of roses came from the Netherlands.
Germany: “Valentine’s Day becomes more colorful”
In the run-up to Valentine’s Day, cold, snow and ice hampered the buying mood of retailers in some regions in Germany, auction prices for the red roses were high – till the Monday before the holiday and the expectations of the wholesalers were low. Flower wholesalers that placed pre-orders seemed to partly profit from their preliminary planning.
This, in a nutshell, was revealed by a survey conducted by the Association of the German Flower Wholesale and Import Trade (BGI), a national interest group of the German cut flower and pot plant wholesalers and import dealers, among its members.
Demand for spring products
“This time neither the weather nor the carnival or a volcanic eruption has crossed our way,” a wholesaler in South Germany told the GBI. According to the traders, the fact that Valentine’s Day fell on a weekday encouraged consumers not only to buy flowers for private use, but also as an appreciation to employees and colleagues. In the west and in the center of Germany, the wholesalers noticed a high demand for the red rose, despite the high prices. However, this year’s Valentine’s day was “more colorful”. All in all, the wholesalers realized that the Valentine’s purchases were focusing strongly on cut flowers this year, but some retailers also reported the first sales of outdoor products for the spring garden. Room plants seemed to be less in demand this year.
All in all we had a good Valentine period
Some growers said that all the work related to Valentine’s Day had already been done by the beginning of week 6.
Ethipia: Affected by weather Unfortunately, reports from Ethiopia weren’t as positive. Production over there has been bad because of the long period of low temperatures.
“Up until four weeks to, the higher altitude areas were still getting quite a few frosty mornings. There were lots of blind shoots, there were only few roses to cut, but the prices were good. It’s hard these days to meet the demand and we’ve even had to buy additional supply. All in all, it was good.
Kenya: Good Valentine
At the moment, there was no shortage at all in Kenya. They had good weather and supply was as expected.
“We cut everything back last November, hoping to get a good flush of Red Naomi. I’m happy to say that our expectations were met.
We ended up with good quantities, both for the auction clock and for our direct customers. Prices and quality were all good. Last year was a bit disappointing, but not this time around,” said a grower.
Timaflor’s Simon van der Burg confirmed that each year is different. Supply at the auctions wasn’t excessive and still, the prices weren’t great. Red was the only colour that was sold at prices similar to last year. Everything else was 5 to 10 cents cheaper.
“Valentine day prices suddenly went up by 4 to 6 cents. Purchases were made more and more at the last minute, so prices went up in the last couple of days.”
Van der Burg has noticed that Kenyan growers say their production has gone down. “But there have been more charter flights than ever before. So all in all, it a good Valentine period.”