Flower export market

Published date13 July 2022
New Zealand's flower export industry is worth about $20 million a year. Most of that is made up of cymbidium orchids, hydrangeas and peonies

COVID-19 lockdowns forced the industry to shift into survival mode, but the head of NZ Bloom, the country's largest flower exporter, said the industry rebounded with sizeable payoff s for growers last year.

Managing director David Ballard said growers were getting strong prices, but international demand for orchids was mixed.

"The big change this year from last year, is that the yen has weakened a lot; it's sitting at, I think, nearly a 30-year low against the US dollar," he said.

"Japan is the largest market for cymbidium orchids, so that means the returns out of Japan aren't as good as we would like them to be, which really means we're trying to move more product into other markets."

Many growers were pivoting to export to the strong North American market instead, but it was not all plain sailing there either, Ballard said.

"North America, at the moment, is the strongest market in the world," he said.

"My caution at the moment is, we're just coming into the slowdown period around July the 4th there, so we've got a difficult couple of weeks to navigate through that holiday period.

"But generally, we're expecting the whole season to work out to be a pretty good year for the growers."

The industry had not been immune to the chronic labour shortages and global freight disruptions many exporters were facing, Ballard said.

"In the past, we've used a lot of backpackers to do the winter work in the greenhouses.

"It's a nice job to have through the winter and undercover in a greenhouse surrounded by...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT