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Green Is the New Black: Consumers take interest in greener flowers
Consumers take interest in greener flowers |
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Written by Michelle Brisebois
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While caring about Mother Earth has always been an admirable quality, it’s almost become more about making a fashion statement than a scientific one. Eco chic is the latest trendy lifestyle and it’s permeating all kinds of industries, including the floral industry.
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Ten years ago, organic flowers and fruit were a niche segment. Now customers are searching them out.
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It’s hard to believe that a mere 10 years ago organic foods and flowers
were truly a niche fringe segment. Organic products were primarily
found at health food stores far away from the mainstream grocery
aisles. As baby boomers started to enter their 50s and they began to
realize they wouldn’t live forever, a life without pesticides suddenly
became quite appealing. Organics have become widely available and less
costly posting double-digit growth year over year. Organics remained
largely a trend driven by health issues until Al Gore (a.k.a. the
Goracle) released the movie An Inconvenient Truth and then suddenly,
organics weren’t just about our personal health – organics came to
represent healing the planet too. Today, organic foods are well
established and becoming more mainstream. As consumers become
accustomed to incorporating organic food products into their lives,
it’s natural that they would start to look for organic floral options.
Scott Graham of Eco Flora in Toronto is a pioneer in organic floral
services and he’s seeing a strong interest in his customer base. “It’s
amazing how quickly consumers have started to want organic floral
arrangements,” confirms Graham. “For the most part, my customers are
passionate about making sustainable choices. For them it’s not just a
fad.” While Canadians are starting to demand organic flowers, there
appear to be regional differences in terms of how quickly consumers are
embracing organic flowers. Silva Ivanova of Florist Karisma in
Beaconsfield, Que., is on the very front wave of a burgeoning organic
floral sector there. “Quebec is coming on line with organic flowers a
bit more slowly,” she muses. “B.C. and Ontario would appear to be ahead
of the rest of the provinces in terms of demand and a strong supply
chain.”
Finding organic flowers seems to be the key challenge for those florists choosing to offer sustainable products. “I have spent a lot of time developing a network of farmers,” says Graham. “I work with my suppliers and get to know them – I visit their farms. I find it really helps to think like a farmer. That’s how I know the story behind the product.” Graham also imports organic roses and Calla lilies from Ecuador and tulips from California. “Greenhouses in Ontario are starting to develop a floral network but up until now the focus has been on organic foods,” says Graham. Eco Flora is not a traditional storefront business model. “Because my business is conducted solely online, I can work out of my farm and have access to lots of natural floral components right out my back door,” says Graham. He raises an important point regarding organic flowers – using native plants, displaying them creatively and educating consumers regarding origin and seasonality can make all the difference. “Informing consumers around what’s growing and when it’s flowering has made a big difference in terms of acceptance,” he says. “Let’s face it; peonies are only blooming for two to three weeks.”
In Quebec, Ivanova has similar sentiments but has found that Fair Trade flowers are an easier concept for people to grasp. “I carry organic flowers plus Fair Trade flowers. My business is about half flowers and half giftware. I make it a practice to carry all products that are Fair Trade. Since the coffee industry has done a good job of promoting Fair Trade coffee people easily relate that concept to my flowers and giftware,” Silva says.
Buying Locally
Another big consumer trend is buying local foods and products. It’s
become so hot that the New Oxford American Dictionary named “locavore”
2007’s word of the year. The idea behind the concept is that locally
made products travel fewer miles, reducing the harmful environmental
effects of long-distance transport. Buying locally benefits local
economies and the companies and farmers that helped to produce the
product.
Authors Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon from Vancouver, B.C. have
helped to spread the “buy local” word through their popular book
entitled The 100-Mile Diet. It’s estimated that when the average North
American sits down to eat, each ingredient travels at least 1,500
miles. The book explores how people can reduce their environmental
impact by sourcing food that’s grown locally.
The buy local idea has just recently evolved to include the flower
industry. In Ontario, Pick Ontario is a new marketing campaign, managed
by Flowers Canada (Ontario) Inc., that is working to promote flowers
and plants grown locally in the province. The campaign was introduced
at this year’s Canada Blooms. Stay tuned to www.canadianfloristmag.com
for more information about the campaign and to find out what you can do
to be a part of it.
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So, just what kind of consumers want sustainable floral products? Are they all wealthy professors who used to live on communes?
“I can honestly say that my customers come from all walks of life,” Graham says. “It’s more of a psychographic than a demographic and weddings are becoming a brisk business. I can say that there are two styles one can go with when designing for a green wedding. You can go for the traditional stylish look or really nod to the organic theme with a very natural style. Most of my customers prefer the natural flowers. If they love nature, it makes sense that they’d want that sort of presentation.” Ivanova sees the socially conscious consumer in her market as someone who tends to be middle aged and female. “I find that the men tend to come in, look and buy. The women ask more questions about where it came from. For them the environmental issues overlap with the social issues and they want to ensure that the people who grow the flowers are paid properly and treated well. Caring about the world has a broader meaning than just organics.”
The organic sector has been self-regulating because there weren’t government-imposed standards but that is in the process of changing. The Government of Canada is in the midst of implementing a new regulation on organic food, which is expected to be in place by the end of 2008. These standards will be monitored and enforced by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Organized standards for making floral organic claims will continue to be crystallized as the government tries to put its arms around just how to define the standards for flowers. “I’ll definitely want to be on board with any formal processes as they are developed,” says Graham.
With all of the media hype around sustainability, it can feel like organics could end up being “flavour of the week.” If we step back and look at the whole history of agriculture, it’s really only been in the last century that we haven’t had organic products. These chemicals that have us so concerned are a fairly recent development – a 20th-century invention. The infrastructure for sustainable floral supply in Canada is developing and as more florists get on board, this sector will likely post some pretty strong growth. Just like the little black dress, some trends are made to last. This one just may be the most important bandwagon we’ll ever jump on.
Web Resources:
Organic Trade Association: Organic Trade Association (OTA) is a membership-based business association that focuses on the organic business community in North America.
www.ota.com/index.html
Veriflora: The VeriFlora certification program was established to provide stringent sustainability performance standards for growers and handlers of cut flowers and potted plants.
www.veriflora.com
TransFair Canada: Trans-Fair Canada is Canada’s only non-profit certification and public education organization promoting Fair Trade Certified to improve the livelihood of developing world farmers and workers.
www.transfair.ca
Fairtrade Labelling Organizations (FLO): International is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder association involving 23 member organizations.
www.fairtrade.net
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