By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 19 1997 (IPS)

The production of cut flowers is proving to be an economic bonanza in Brazil with a domestic market that is growing almost 20 percent annually and which is helping reduce the unemployment level.

Flower sales reached 1.1 billion dollars in this country last year, according to estimates of the Brazilian Institute of Floriculture (Ibraflor). This represents a per capita figure of seven dollars, less than the 100 dollars spent pon flowers by the average European,. but still a tidy sum in Latin America.

Still, with sales bounding ahead by 50 percent in the past three years, Ibraflor president Francisco Bonger, is confident sales will rise to a 15 to 20 dollars per capita in Brazil – with exports also rising.

Export sales, at present, are marginal – an estimated 12 million dollars in 1996 – when compared to those of Colombia, the biggest Latin American exporter of flowers, with an international market estimated at 20 billion dollars.

“Globalization has forced us to improve the quality of our flowers, and, consequently, our exports,” said Paulo Reijers, sales manager of the Holambra Cooperative, which accounts for 35 percent of Brazilian flower production.

The proposed creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) will create new opportunities for exporting, but it will also open the Brazilian economy to Colombian flower growers, for example, who are the most competitive in the region, said Reijers.

Bonger recognized that Brazilian floriculture still lacks the quality to compete in the external market, but he is confident that rapid advances will be made. “Within five years we will be exporting 30 percent of our production,” he said.

The strategy he proposes is to take advantage of Brazil’s natural conditions and directing production toward decorative tropical plants and flowers, which are considered exotic for the wealthy markets of the North.

Brazil also could compete with more common and commercial flowers, such as roses, azaleas and violets, and by taking advantage of the country’s climate to export flowers during the winter to Europe and North America, said Reijers.

Holambra, 140 kilometers from Sao Paulo, is considered as having originated the development of large-scale commercial flower production. The agricultural village, founded 49 years ago by dozens of Dutch immigrant families, grew and prospered economically by producing flowers.

Initially the Dutch engaged in traditional agriculture of grains and horticulture. Flower growing became more common at the end of the 1960s, after new immigrants brought in bulbs from Holland, where Reijers and Bonger studied.

Holambra, a mixture of “Holland” and “Brazil,” became a commercial success only after 1989, when it developed a system of daily auctions that fueled sales. “In three hours, we sold 270,000 dollars worth,” said Reijers.

The village became a city of 15,000 inhabitants, and became an independent municipality five years ago. Its economy depends on a cooperative that concentrates on decorative flowers and plants. The cooperative employs nearly 1,000 workers and is headed by 120 producers, usually families.

The advantages of flower growing is that it creates many jobs, from ten to 20 workers per hectare, and that its structure allows for production from small plots of land, says Bonger. Ibraflor estimates that flower growing involves 4,500 hectares throughout the country.

The Holambra boom helped other flower growers to expand their activities. They are generally organized in cooperatives in the state of Sao Paulo, which concentrates 75 to 80 percent of Brazil’s national commercial production.

While Holambra is promoting its sixteenth Flower Expo, at least three other flower and plant fairs are being held within a 100- kilometer radius of Sao Paulo, the country’s largest metropolis and principal market.

Augusto Aki, coordinator of the Flower Expo, expects 250,000 visitors during the 25 days of the fair, which ends September 28. Since 1994, the number of visitors has grown at least ten percent each year, he says.

The biggest problem facing floriculture is marketing and transportation, according to Bonger, who worked eight years in Holambra. Of the 1.1 billion dollars in sales registered in Brazil in 1996, the producers saw only 250,000 dollars. The rest went to the pockets of the chain of transporters and middlemen who bring the flowers to the consumers.

In addition, because the ideal altitude for flower growing is 1,200 meters, Holambra relies on technology to compensate for its altitude of 600 meters. Colombia produces flowers in ideal conditions, at higher altitudes and with balanced temperatures between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius, says Reijers.

Ecuador is also developing large flower growing projects, said the executive of Holambra. According to Reijers, the Andean countries have another advantage: the assistance provided by the United States and Europe to develop floriculture as a substitute to the coca leaf.

Excerpt: