Business is blooming for Victorian flower farmers
The Victorian flower industry is running hot, as competition from imported flowers is almost non-existent due to COVID-19 travel bans.
BY LUCY CROCK
Flower farmers are optimistic about Australia’s flower industry as more wholesalers are turning to local supply during Victoria’s lockdown.
Current restrictions on flower imports have coincided with a swell in flower sales as Victorians in stage four lockdown are sending one another flowers at unprecedented rates.
Flowers Victoria chair Michael Van Der Zwet said, for years, local growers have been competing with imports from Kenya, Colombia and Ecuador, with about $75 million worth of cut flowers imported each year.
Recent COVID-19 restrictions have significantly reduced these imports.
Mr Van Der Zwet said the reduction in imports has been “a huge positive for flowers in general right through the whole chain, from the producers through to the end consumer”.
Hancock’s Daffodil Farm owner Will Ashburner said nurseries are now selling out as COVID-19 restrictions have significantly reduced their competition.
“The market is turning back to local flowers, and seasonal flowers, like daffodils, which are usually considered too difficult,” Mr Ashburner said.
“We’re getting the sort of prices we want to get...flowers will cost what they actually cost.”
Daily Blooms founder Courtney Ray said florists and nurseries with an online presence are also selling out.
“People now realise how easy and simple it is to order flowers online,” Ms Ray said.
“Our order volumes have tripled overnight,” she said.
Ms Ray said Daily Blooms is passionate about sourcing from local growers and has benefited from already well-established links with them.
“Demand for local flowers has just gone through the roof,” she said.
“Fingers crossed this will start a trend towards locally sourced produce and flowers.”
Avonsleigh Flowers agronomist Rodger Ashburner said different types of flowers are also in demand.
“Demand for hardier, longer living, more storable flowers has increased, because a lot of flower [orders], at least in Victoria, are being done online,” Mr Ashburner said.
“So people are buying the flowers [online] and they want them to be a bit more robust because they’re not quite sure of the orders and they’re not quite sure of transportation.”
While Mr Ashburner said they do not trust the increased demand “enough to actually build more greenhouses”, on the whole “it’s only been positive” for the Australian flower industry after “doom and gloom for years now”.
