Flower growers see sales wither as spring blooms
Beneath the panes of his greenhouse, Jan VanZanten surveys a sea of sun star flowers rising up from plastic pots, ready to ship but without a buyer.
In past years, the Niagara Region grower had no trouble selling to wholesalers by the thousands.
“Now we’re just composting,” VanZanten said. “Since my kids are home every afternoon, they have to spend two hours throwing out the flowers that have bloomed out.”
Sales are down 30 per cent for the year and Easter came and went at the height of physical distancing measures. The uncertainty facing the industry as Mother’s Day approaches — “you could liken it to Christmas for every other retailer” — and the critical spring planting season dawns are even more worrisome.
“If this goes till June we will most likely be at 70 per cent,” he said of year-over-year revenue loss. “My overdraft is maxed out at the bank. Obviously they’re wondering when I’m going to start drawing that back, and I can’t since I haven’t sold anything.”
VanZanten is one of thousands of flower farmers across the country concerned about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for nonperishable items pushed decorative plants out of the supply chain in last month’s stockpiling frenzy, while the ongoing shutdown of garden centres in jurisdictions including Ontario and New York has cut off critical points of sale, threatening to leave growers high and dry.
“This is when we sell. We’re on the cusp of a critical period,” said James Farrar, director of the Canadian Ornamental Horticulture Alliance.
Trees, bushes and bedding plants are usually planted between May 1 and June 15, he said, with customers ranging from backyard gardeners to municipalities.
In Ontario, flower producers discarded about 40 per cent of their Easter crop, according to Flowers Canada Growers.
The province has designated garden centres as a non-essential service — a painful exclusion for the industry, since nearly two-thirds of Canadian production stems from Ontario. Neighbouring New York and Ohio have also forced garden centres to lock their doors, while Michigan and Vermont have barred retailers from selling non-essential products, including home gardening items.
“If they don’t open, the damage is going to be astronomical,” said trade group head Andi Kuyvenhoven, noting garden centres’ crucial role for bedding plants in particular.
Growers associations are in talks with federal and provincial governments over potential financial relief, with Flowers Canada Growers asking for a “cash injection.”
So far, the federal government has extended a stay of default for eligible farmers until Oct. 31, giving flower and potted plant producers an extra six months to pay off federal loans that would have been due at the end of April.
Ottawa has also granted exemptions on air travel restrictions to temporary foreign works and invested $50 million to help farmers fly in labourers on charter trips.
Back at the greenhouse, VanZanten mulls the overripe lilies and orchids.
“Flowers do make you happier, they do actually lift your spirits ... but there are farms that can’t bounce back from this,” he said.
“This all happened at the wrong time.”