Flower growers are pushing for country of origin labelling to be applied to the cut flower market as florists fire up for their second-busiest day of the year.
The industry’s peak body, Flowers Industry Australia, says Australians will spend $220 million on flowers for Valentine’s Day.
Much of this will go towards the traditional red rose.
While many roses are grown in the country, about 13 million red roses were imported into the country last year.
Many red roses are imported into Australia, according to the industry’s peak body. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)
Between 5 million and 10 million stems of roses were estimated to have gone through Sydney’s wholesale markets in the past week.
While many foods in Australia must adhere to country of origin labelling, no equivalent exists for commercial cut flowers.
“You can look at your food and you know exactly where it’s from, but when it comes to cut flowers in Australia, people just don’t know,” Flower Industries Australia secretary Anna Jabour said.
“If you go to your local florist, you need to ask them, ‘Where is the flower from?’
Anna Jabour says customers have a right to know what they are buying. (Supplied: Flower Industry Australia)
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“At the moment, it’s off the table with the federal government, but we will continue to try and bring it back on the table.”
Indoor flower specialist Arietta Thomson said she would like to see the regulations changed so consumers could back Australian growers.
“If we don’t support it, we’ll lose it,” Ms Thomson said.
Anthony Boyd says Valentine’s Day will attract about $45 million in trading at the Sydney Flower Market. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)
Trend heads towards brighter alternatives
Sydney Flower Market was bustling with growers, wholesalers and florists early this morning for the Valentine’s Day flower rush.
Sydney Markets CEO Anthony Boyd said it was the second-biggest day of the year after Mother’s Day.
Nicola Pavadano says colourful flowers such as purple dahlias are becoming more popular. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)
“Valentine’s Day would be probably on average three to four times the volume of any other given week,” Mr Boyd said.
“That’s around about $45 million worth of trade that comes through the market.”
Flower grower Nicola Padovano, who sells a wide variety of blooms at the market, said there had been a push towards bright and colourful seasonal local produce.
Nicola Padovano says alternatives to the red rose, such as kangaroo paws, are also popular. (ABC News: Declan Bowring)
“At the moment dahlias have been doing really well,” Ms Padovano said.
“Anything red, so your flowering gums, natives like smoke bush [and] kangaroo paw.”
Traditional red rose no longer first choice
Michael Bagala, whose family business has been growing and selling roses for more than 40 years, said the rose was still in fashion but people were choosing to mix them with other flowers.
“Everyone’s going for a quality bouquet but mixing a rose in it,” Mr Bagala said.
“Red is always the tradition and there’s a lot of traditionalists out there and I hope these guys keep going.”
He said customers asked about the country of origin of his roses, which included imports from Kenya and Ecuador.
“We need these roses to keep up with demand,” Mr Bagala said.
“We make sure we get quality farms from around the world.”
Laielle Alameddeine says the hydrangea is catching on. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
Laielle Alameddenie was buying stock for her build-your-own bouquet business.
She said the red rose was out of fashion and believed the hydrangea was more in vogue.
“They’re beautiful, they come in different colours and they just really stand out,” she said.
Ms Jabour said she did not think the red rose would ever go out of fashion, but it was far from customers’ first choice these days.
“There has been some years where I’ve known some florists that … over-order the red roses and people aren’t choosing them as much anymore,” she said.
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