“We have experienced many local and international crises. We are living in crisis, but we know how to manage”, assures Eduardo Letort, head of the Hoja Verde company, which produces 35 million roses of 120 different varieties each year.
The South American country’s fourth source of income, roses brought in $927 million in 2021, an all-time high. Ecuador, where some 600 companies grow 450 varieties of roses, is the world’s third largest producer after the Netherlands and Colombia.
“It has been very hard years, but we flower growers are very resilient. We have managed to adapt, we have become more efficient”, explains Mr. Letort to AFP in his nursery in Cayambe, a locality Andean near Quito.
In this highly competitive sector, Ecuadorian producers have notably explored new markets, taking advantage of the excellent reputation of their production.
They also rationalized the use of fertilizers in the face of rising prices, first due to the pandemic, then because of the war in Ukraine, Russia being a main supplier of fertilizers.
In June, when the mobilization of the natives against the cost of living and the price of fuels hardened, the demonstrators sometimes attacked shipments of roses.
Flowers also had to be thrown away because they rotted on the spot, unable to be exported due to road blockages.
– Market advantage –
Flower growers are concentrated on 5,800 hectares in the high Sierra region.
In 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, sales represented $827 million, a less steep drop than expected compared to 2019 (880 million).
“We have seen that flowers, despite the pandemic, have become a necessary product. People wanted color, scents in their homes, it really became a basic necessity”, underlines Mr. Letort, who sends 5% of its production in France.
Not to mention the increased requests for burials due to Covid-19.
At the start of 2022, exports had already rebounded well. Between January and May, it generated 432 million dollars, against 417 over the same period in 2021.
Tall, up to 90 cm high, bearing buds with abundant colorful petals, bright green leaves, Ecuadorian roses are considered the most beautiful in the world.
“Because of the quality, the color, the size, we always have an advantage in the market”, explains Socorro Martinez, head of the Dutch company Dümmen Orange, located in Guachala.
But the 18-day strike launched by indigenous movements against the high cost of living has somewhat tarnished this optimism.
For the president of the Association of Producers and Exporters Expoflores, Alejandro Martinez, the year 2022 “was set to be very good despite the question of Russia, with drops, but with a potential recovery at the end of the year”.
“With the (indigenous) strike, it will be much more complicated” to maintain the expected results, he predicts.
In 2021, Russia was the second largest market for Ecuadorian flowers (20%), behind the United States (40%). After the invasion of Ukraine, Russian purchases fell to 10%, according to Letort, who is also a local representative of Expoflores.
“The flower trade is difficult in itself, it doesn’t take a strike, nor a pandemic, nor a war to be already complicated”, estimates Marco Peñaherrera, an intermediary who ensures the sale of 120,000 roses per week in the United States. But he recognizes, without disclosing it, that his margin is sufficient to consider that “it’s a good business”.
