Growers are preserving what they have in storage or fields, however the reality is that almost all of this 12 month’s harvest
will possible go to waste.
“The loss is huge,” said Michel van Schie of FloraHolland, the world’s dominant flower clearing house for public sales.
“In the intervening time we now have solely 30% of our regular turnover, and ... that during the busiest period of the year.”
Each day gross sales in March typically move 20 million euros ($22
million) of flowers, which continue with strong sales into the Easter vacation and Mothers Day..
In
all, 35% of the world's flower and plant exports, valued at 6.2 billion
euros over a 12 months period, move through the Netherlands,
principally from Dutch growers, but
additionally from African and Latin American farms.
Van
Schie said the situation became specially acute on March 13 with the
flight
cancellations and bans on public gatherings at many international
events. This meant almost 1 / 4 of flowers up for public sale that day
went
unsold and had to be thrown out.
“Subsequent on that Monday it was 50%, after which we had to take unpleasant measures and
we had to tell our growers ‘please diminish your stock’ as a result
much of the stock had to be destroyed.”
Read more at: Dutch flower industry continues to wither amid coronavirus - Sunriseread
