Wonderful! Schools in the Andes also broke up for the summer this week, something I look forward to eagerly every year. At least there will be less chaos on the roads in town, no yellow school buses, and the people of Quito will be leaving in droves.
The start of the summer holidays is always a great moment to look back on the past import season. It has been a difficult year for the Ecuadorian floriculture. Most growers didn’t achieve their margins, just as they didn’t last year, due to increased production costs, the more expensive dollar, unfavourable economic government policy, and continuing misery on the Russian market.
But this hasn’t resulted in a lot of people giving up. You do notice though that, because of the situation, growers are not investing in replacing species. And if they do decide to do so, they play ‘safe’ and start growing a successful variety which has already proved itself, instead of choosing to take on the adventure of a new variety. That is understandable, but a slight disappointment for us, because Ecuador has always distinguished itself with its wide and more exclusive range.
Furthermore, the 2015-2016 season will be remembered as the year of the Chinese breakthrough and the exceptionally high production rate. Because of the extraordinarily warm weather during the winter on the one hand and a change in cultivation method (more stems per m2, but shorter side shoots) on the other, some growers managed to cut 60% more stems.
A reversal of this sky-high rate of production was inevitable. This reversal happened soon after Mother’s Day: a dip in production as we had never seen before, triggered by cool, rainy weather. Carnations, roses, and hypericum were nowhere to be found! But gypsophila took the biscuit with wholesale prices of more than 10 dollars a bunch, and production is still not back at its normal level.
But let’s also look forward briefly. The most important question is whether there will be a free trade agreement with the EU or not. Fate is in the hands of the EU. If the agreement is not signed by 1 December 2016, we will be paying an import duty of 12% as of 1 January 2017. Ouch!
Fingers crossed for a favourable outcome.
Victor van Dijk,
Manager South America, FleuraMetz
