Tariffs on imported flowers, barriers for smaller growers
NOTE: I wrote a draft of this a few days ago and as of now, it appears that wholesale flowers/floral supplies have already increased in price, based on message board chatter. It also appears that some wholesalers are having their orders cancelled by the growers/importers. I also understand that the floral industry isn’t on most people’s radar right now, but this could potentially have a devastating effect on thousands of small businesses across the US. Please be aware that some of this information may not even be valid tomorrow, as things seem to be changing on a daily basis.
Tariff Update from Florabundance
South American Tariffs impact…flower shops ahead of Mother’s Day
AP Video: Trump’s tariffs threaten to stem the flow of affordable flowers
As sort of a follow up on my previous post, I want to touch on the tariffs that will impact the price of imported flowers. If you are a florist or a flower farmer, I’d love to hear your input. This is an issue that I care about, because I was previously —and have plans to be again— a flower farmer. I am not a political analyst or an economist, but I can spot patterns and I have seen some chatter on discussion boards about the rising cost of cut flowers. If you ARE an economist, I’d like to hear from you in the comments as well.
We’ll start by going over a trade agreement from the early 90s. The Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) was enacted in 1991 and expanded in 2002 as the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). In short, the US granted duty free import of certain products (approximately 5,600) from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru to encourage them to produce goods other than cocaine. One of those products is cut flowers, which now accounts for the majority cut flowers in the US. (More info)
In 2022, US imports of cut flowers and nursery products grew to $3.3 billion. (Source) Colombia and Ecuador are the two largest suppliers on the chart, and they are also on the tariff list at 10%. But that’s not all. The EU is also on the list of places where we import cut flowers and nursery products. The EU is on the tariff list at 20%. Do you order flower bulbs? They probably come from Holland. Even if florists aren’t getting cut flowers from a European supplier, the people growing flowers from bulbs in the US very likely are. If you haven’t priced daffodil bulbs lately, the quality bulbs aren’t cheap. If you get into specialty or unusual varieties, it’s even more costly. EDIT: Just before this was scheduled to post some more news broke about EU tariffs. This is an extremely volatile situation, and there’s really no way for me to keep up with all of the news releases.
Kenya, which also has a cut flower industry that 500K people depend on, is on the list at 10%. I believe the primary market for Kenya are European florists, but there are some imported to the US. The labor practices and working conditions at the flower farms in Kenya are pretty terrible.
A chart of total spending on floral products by year. If you scroll through, there’s some other data about number of florists, etc. Of all the floriculture crops produced in the US, cut flowers only accounted for 350 million in 2023. That’s primarily because US growers cannot compete with the pricing from South America that is tied to worker wages/labor practices, and favorable trade agreements that seem to prioritize imports.
Having been a cut flower grower, I can tell you that there are few government programs that directly address increasing cut flower production in the US. This seems crazy pants to me because people spend about $3 billion on cut flowers in the US every year. US cut flower growers only produce around 11% of that product.
Farmers can sign up for the High Tunnel Initiative, but it’s a grant which means it’s taxable. There are other government programs for specialty crops that cut flower growers may qualify for, but again, they are all grants so you will have to pay taxes on the funds AND you have to match awarded funds in some cases.
What do these tariffs mean for consumers and florists? Wholesale prices are going to increase (or already have), which means retail will follow suit. Many florists in the US are independently owned and will likely struggle to keep up with increased pricing unless they can pivot and buy locally or regionally. Once prices go up, they rarely ever go back down on the retail side, even if pricing pressure decreases.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you are in or adjacent to the floral industry.
Until next time…
Jennifer