l
NEGLIGIBLE SHIPMENTS
The world flower and ornamental plant market, taking into con-
sideration the entire production and consumption of the countries,
is estimated at upwards of US$ 70 billion a year. Of this total, the por-
tion represented by the flow of trade between producers and con-
sumers has been experiencing, though with occasional oscillations
between exports and imports, a continued expansion in imports,
while exports are on thedecline. “Brazil is only shipping abroad seed-
lings and bulbs. The shipment of cut flowers has practically come to
a standstill some six years ago due to the high costs, unfavorable ex-
change rate and, particularly, heated domestic market”, explains the
president of Ibraflor, Kees Schoenmaker.
With theBraziliancurrencyonadevaluating trend, importsof seed-
lings, bulbs and seeds, basic material for production, turned out to be
tooexpensive, whichalso resulted indeclining imports. Theprojection
is for the real valueof exports for 2017 toamount toUS$10orUS$10.3,
representing an expressive drop of 22% from2016. The global floricul-
turetradehasbeenledbyHollandforyears,with55%ofthetotalsales.
Then comes Colombia, with 10.3%of global flower exports.
cessionhas already started”, he says. Theenti-
tyacknowledgesthatforthenexttwoorthree
yearstheeconomywillstillberunningbehind.
Therefore, the farmers adopt measures with
an eye on the reduction of production costs.
Inthemeantime,theydonotintendtoexpand
productionatthemoment.
Schoenmaker mentions the positive
evaluation by the Ministry of Agriculture,
Livestock and Food Supply (Mapa) to the
solicitation of pesticide registers for flowers
and ornamental plants. “Some three years
ago,wefiledasolicitationforachangeinthe
manner the registers were granted, to have
themeffectuatedby target andno longer by
species, as we have upwards of 2,500 spe-
cies under production”, he justifies. In 2017,
the grouping of “flowers and ornamental
plants” was approved andwas supposed to
go through public consultation and, then,
published in the Government Gazette.
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