Despite a growing demand for organically grown food and
consumer goods produced in an environmentally friendly manner,
Canadians are not asking the floral industry to change its practises.
In a series of coast-to-coast telephone interviews with Canada’s flower auction houses, industry representatives shared the same response when asked if their buyers were looking for organically grown flowers. “No, not that I’m aware of,” said Tom Mulleder, executive manager for British Columbia’s United Flower Growers.
“We have 180 growers who bring in their crop and we sell it for them,” he said. He added that all of the flowers on the auction floor are grown by local producers who follow the same highly regulated practices used throughout the domestic industry. “Some wholesalers may have had requests to import such products,” he added, but they have not been sold through the UFG.
There have also been no requests for organically grown flowers east of Ontario, says Howard Schaffer, sales representative for Montreal-based Marche Floral. “Our customers want high quality and good price,” he says. They also want big beautiful bouquets that are free of insects, even if beneficial ones. Marche Floral serves as the inter-provincial flower auction exchange for 150 growers from Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.
From their operations, Schaffer says price is the driving factor on the auction floor and being organically grown has not been an issue. He does not foresee that trend changing, but if it does, it will have to start at the retail level.
Jouke Sypkes, general manager for Ontario Flower Growers, agrees. “We are in that process, but the consumers are going to have to demand it, and there has to be a financial incentive (for the growers).”
Sypkes notes growers are continually evolving their cultural practices to reduce their costs and still produce a high-quality product. Pesticides are one such cost and growers use them sparingly, and if they do not use them, their production suffers. New, more environmentally friendly products are needed by the industry, he added, but minor use applications continue to be mired in the red tape of Ottawa’s Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) continues to evolve and biological controls are big in Canada. Sypkes notes that IPM did not exist 20 years ago but is practised by all greenhouse operations today.
“Our standards are huge, so how do we get that word out,” he asks.
At the moment, “I don’t hear customers coming in here and asking for organically grown (flowers),” he said. “This issue always raises itself around Valentine’s Day,” when flower sales peak, he noted, and is generally started by environment groups such as the Sierra Club. Interest usually tapers off soon after.
The environment is incredibly important and is the biggest single issue among political parties, says Sypkes. “Perhaps articles such as this one will stimulate discussion at the retail florist level. This should be discussed,” he said. “Having a green label on a domestic product is a good thing.”
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