Domestic Greenhouses Decry Cheaper Labor Overseas : Imports Frost U.S. Flower Growers
Imported or grown domestically, a rose is a rose and smells as sweet. And that’s the thorn pricking the domestic flower industry, which claims that imports are undercutting its billion-dollar business.
“There are greenhouse companies that are going broke around the country, one by one, because of imports,” rose grower Steve Slatton said. “It’s one of our major concerns.”
Slatton manages Pittsburgh Cut Flowers, one of the country’s largest rose growers, producing about 5 1/2 million rose blossoms a year from 250,000 bushes. The buds flourish under greenhouses on rolling hills about 20 miles north of Pittsburgh.
‘Ominous Clouds’
For most of its 120-plus years, the business “has been very stable,” Slatton said. “And it still is yet. It’s just that there are ominous clouds hanging around.”
Aggressive competition from cheaper, foreign imports--once confined to products such as steel, shoes and electronics--is forcing growers to trim their budgets and scrutinize future plans.
“It’s funny to think flowers can be brought over here from another country and still be affordable,” says Patti Schuldenfrei, managing editor of Florists’ Review.
But flowers can be delivered to the United States from most parts of the world less than 24 hours after they’re picked and at lower costs than for those produced here, she said.
Imports of cut flowers are now at a record high level, composing more than 30% of all cut flowers and topping $214 million in value in 1984, says Stephen Burket, industry analyst for the International Trade Commission.
Filling the Demand
People are buying more flowers, experts say, but the proportion of the market for domestic growers is shrinking because imports are filling the demand.
Lilli Ann Breshnahan, director of of the New York-based Flower Council of Holland, claims that the U.S. market is far from being saturated. She said U.S. growers could compete more effectively if they would cooperate with importers in advertising flowers and be more creative in what they grow.
“Let’s face it. When you think of Dutch flowers being grown in Europe, at higher labor costs than in the U.S., and they’re flown over here, so the freight has to be added on, it would seem to me that a U.S. grower who’s on the ball would be able to compete very easily,” she said.
“I just think the growers who are looking toward the future and are progressive have seen that if you expand the market, there’s more than enough to go around.”
Colombia is the top-ranking petal pusher among the foreign competitors, supplying 58% of all cut flowers imported domestically in 1984, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mexico and Guatemala last year supplied 19% and 6%, respectively.
Domestic growers claim those countries have a natural advantage because they don’t have to pay high heating bills and standard U.S. labor costs.
“We have an enormous investment in greenhouses here. It costs a fortune to operate,” Slatton said, rattling off the figures--100,000 gallons of water per day, 6,300 tons of coal a year.
“In South America, there’s no heating problem. They go into the mountains until they find a microclimate with stable temperatures, humidity and sunlight,” he said. “Labor runs from $25 to $35 a week per person.”
Holland has none of the South American advantages. But advanced technology, aggressive marketing and a cooperative system among growers helped the Netherlands control 11% of the market for all imported cut flowers last year and practically corner the market in bulb flowers such as tulips, freesias, irises and lilies, according to the Agriculture Department.
“Two years ago, florists were afraid to touch these flowers because they thought they were too exotic,” Breshnahan said. “Now they’ll tell you they can’t do without them.”
The imports have affected not just a few varieties of flowers, but an entire bouquet.
Pittsburgh Cut Flowers, which now grows mostly roses, had to phase out its production of chrysanthemums and carnations in the early ‘60s “when imports became too many,” Slatton said.
Now, about 70% of all standard carnations and 68% of all pompon mums purchased in the United States are imported, according to the Agriculture Department.
Roses, once considered too delicate to transport long distances, are being imported in numbers 10 times that of a decade ago, thanks to new technology that enables roses to withstand being out of water for a time. Currently, more than one out of every four roses bought in this country are grown elsewhere. Roses Inc., a trade group of rose growers, claims the figures are much higher.
Nearing Precipice
That has Slatton worried.
“The steel industry found that when imports got to be about 25%, things crumbled,” Slatton said. “There seems to be a certain percentage of the market when things begin to collapse.”
Imports may be cheaper, but Slatton claims that his flowers are better because they’re fresher and hardier.
“The things we do here no importer can come close to approaching,” he said.
“I’m sure there are places the money could be put into with a lot less struggle. But for me, I’m too cussed. I love this work. As long as we can remain profitable, we’ll continue.”
