Flower Farmers Going Organic for an Edge Over Foreign Competition

Along a fog-blanketed swath of coastline waiting to burst forth with vivid colors, there are signs of the yesterdays, todays and tomorrows of the flower industry.

Empty greenhouses flank Josh Dautoff’s farm, relics of the bust that came when cheap imports drove his neighbors out of business. More than 150 varieties replace the daisies his parents grew when a family could make a living with one flower. A barren six-acre plot will soon hold the seeds of a future crop of organic sunflowers.

Farmers who weathered a wave of cheap imports in the last decade by coaxing their fields to yield hundreds of harder-to-find varieties are increasingly betting on organic flowers, a nascent industry taking bloom on the heels of the organic food boom.

Although the market for organic flowers is still small -- sales totaled $8 million in 2003, a fraction of the $19.4-billion customers spent on all flowers nationally -- it’s growing fast as customers wary of chemicals begin looking for the same standard in other products such as soaps, clothing, cosmetics and Valentine’s Day bouquets.

There’s no evidence that organic flowers are healthier, but customers are increasingly willing to pay more for products made without chemicals harmful to workers or the environment. Organic flower sales are expected to grow 13% annually through 2008, according to the Organic Trade Assn.

Many in the industry hope going organic will be an environmentally friendly as well as a financially sound alternative for farmers trying to stay afloat.

“There’s going to be learning curve, because flowers have to look good, and they’re very susceptible to all kinds of pests,” said Peggy Dillon of the California Cut Flower Commission.

The trouble in the flower fields of Central California began in 1991, when the United States reduced tariffs on flowers brought in from Colombia and other South American countries.

For decades, California had supplied the nation’s flower shops. But producers here couldn’t compete with South America’s lower wages and steady sunshine. Foreign growers also benefited from being able to use more pesticides to create beautiful flowers, but the chemicals left workers with blurred vision, trembling hands, headaches and dizziness.

California still grows 72% of domestically produced flowers. But 80% of the flowers Americans buy are foreign, compared with 45% 15 years ago.

That shift left a sad stamp on California’s coastal flower farms. There were 45 farmers growing roses in the Watsonville area in 1991. Now, there are about 10, Dillon said.

“I can’t compete on regular roses,” said Marc Kessler of California Organic Flowers. He grows more than 100 varieties on two acres. “But organic gives us an edge, and I can compete with unique varieties, special colors and fragrances and freshness.”

Despite its promise, the organic market is limited, and the financial risks are substantial, making it hard for farmers like Dautoff, who wishes his whole farm could be chemical free.

To halt the chemical cycle, farmers need to leave fields fallow for three years for pesticides to wash from soils.

Also, wholesale buyers, who make up the bulk of the mainstream flower market, don’t want organic, said Darrell Torchio, who has a flower wholesale business in San Francisco.

“If they market it right, people who like to buy organic could be interested in it,” Torchio said. “But the people using it commercially aren’t really interested.”

But there are signs that this might be changing, said Gerald Prolman, who started Organic Bouquet, the first national online distributor of organic flowers, in 2001.

Part of Prolman’s mission is education. Many people who would probably want to buy organic flowers just don’t know they’re available, he said.

“This is a matter of supply and choice, rather than supply and demand,” he said. “The more we make it available, the more people ask for it.”

And his investment is paying off. After an initial struggle to introduce the idea and find suppliers, the company took off, tripling in size between 2004 and 2005. Now, 85% of his flowers are organic, and the rest are on their way to becoming organic.