Traditionally florists, farm shops and small businesses buy fresh flowers from their local wholesale market. The idea of Floriculture as an industry began in the 19th Century when the large houses and country estates of the Victorian Era produced vast quantities of flowers and as the industrial revolution took hold transporting the flowers from the provinces into London became feasible and Covent Garden was born.
But with globalisation things have changed hugely. Flowers are now BIG business with global sales of around $26 billion dollars a year. Many florists and shops buy direct from the Dutch wholesale markets and receive their flowers from their regular refrigerated lorries. In the UK, retail sale of flowers through all outlets (including supermarkets) is bigger than the music industry – a staggering 2.2billion pounds every year
Global Cut Flower retail sales
2014 $26.6 billion 2013 $25.7 billion
2012 $26.3 billion 2011 $25.8 billion
Britain imports around 17% of all of the flowers grown worldwide and the average bouquet travels almost 4400 miles to reach its recipient with a meagre 10% of flowers being British Grown. Flowers supplied to the UK are mainly grown in Ecuador, Columbia, Mexico, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Kenya (with the Netherlands being the port through which nearly all international flowers flow).
So what is going on with local wholesalers and what can florists learn these days by visiting the markets? I went to Cardiff Flower Market last spring to see how the industry copes with a supply chain that cuts out the wholesaler and to see the quality of the flowers coming into the markets first hand.
One of the first things you notice visiting the markets is the price per stem of the blooms, how many blooms must be purchased to ‘count’ as a wholesale purchase and how uniform and unscented everything is. Bearing in mind that VAT in Holland is just 6% for flower sales (compared to 20% here) it is also immediately apparent that the prices plus VAT leave little room for British growers to achieve a good return on wholesale flowers through the wholesale markets and whilst individual blooms might seem quite cheap for florists to buy – the fact they have to buy in bulk means that there is a significant risk of wastage (or florists must operate using a very strict and limited range with little variation).
For example, these allium at 20p a stem seem great value but the minimum order is 10 stems (within a total order of at least £50 or £100). So if you needed just one or two stems then the minimum you will pay is £2.40 plus the requirement to buy large quantities of other blooms. This year The Woodland Farm sold our alliums similar to this (but slightly larger and with more unopened florets) for 80p each. We don’t operate a minimum order size for florists or DIY brides – but we do cut to order so we will charge if people cancel last minute. Not quite as take-it-or-leave it as the cash and carry in Cardiff – but more local for West Wales florists and a much reduced waste or stocking burden.
Similarly alchemilla mollis in the markets is sold in bunches of 25 and all very very open. On the foliage side we found the quality to be variable and not much to inspire – but special items like delphiniums and roses had great conformity and were consistently excellent. The more common foliage items such as hypericum and sisal were also very good quality.
This year, we’ve heard reports that lupins are coming in from abroad in very poor condition which is good for us British Growers – but bad for their flower reputation! Also, with the strikes in Calais holding up imported flowers at the port one of my florists reported today that she’d been told local florists wanting wedding flowers might be lucky to get any unless things start moving quickly…. Yikes!
However, there is always something to learn when you get up for a 5am start – and I especially enjoyed scrutinising how the most delicate blooms are protected and wrapped – and even looking at the content of some of the mixed bouquets was useful (though a little uninspiring)!
Still looking for a source of seed for thlaspi green spire though!