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Dutch growers reportedly destroyed millions of tulips in recent weeks as the coronavirus crisis uproots the global floral industry. Some 140 million tulip stems were scrapped over the past month amid coronavirus-related lockdowns that have caused demand for flowers to wilt, an official at Dutch flower auction firm Royal FloraHolland told The New York Times. …
Dutch growers reportedly destroyed millions of tulips in recent weeks as the coronavirus crisis uproots the global floral industry.
Some 140 million tulip stems were scrapped over the past month amid coronavirus-related lockdowns that have caused demand for flowers to wilt, an official at Dutch flower auction firm Royal FloraHolland told The New York Times.
Measures aimed at stopping the deadly virus have shuttered flower shops worldwide and canceled large events in the middle of tulip season in the Netherlands, the paper reported. The flower industry there reportedly sells about $30 million in flowers a day on average from March through May — as the world celebrates Easter, Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day.
“We had very good quality tulips this year,” Frank Uittenbogaard of JUB Holland, who had to destroy 200,000 of the family farm’s tulip stems, told the Times. “I took my bike and went cycling when they did it because I couldn’t handle it.”
While small stores have remained open in the Netherlands, flower growers and distributors whose businesses rely on other countries have been gutted by the virus crisis, with one exporter telling the paper that 90 percent of his seasonal revenues had already been lost.
The pandemic has also delivered a blow to the US flower industry. Sales for domestic flower producers have plunged 40 percent on average in recent weeks, according to a survey from the Society of American Florists. The industry group estimates that domestic cut flower and greenery growers will take a nearly $200 million hit from February through May.
“The industry is at a pivotal point in its long history in the US and without rapid and significant support, it will likely collapse,” the society and other flower industry groups wrote a letter released last week asking the US Department of Agriculture for financial help for growers.
