Flower exporters outdo nature to fight competition

Louise Sheehan says New Zealand has a reputation for high-quality and exclusive flowers. Picture / Martin Sykes

Increased competition, rising transport costs and the high value of the dollar are putting the squeeze on the flower growing industry.

A few years ago someone growing calla lilies could expect to get up to $4 a stem in Japan, says Louise Sheehan, chairwoman of the New Zealand Flower Exporters Association.

But now a grower would be lucky to earn $2 a stem.

About 2000 people work in the flower growing and processing industry but some are finding more lucrative ways to earn money from their land.

"Somewhere like Tauranga, where the city is encroaching on the rural areas, it makes more commercial sense for someone to sell their 10 acres for real estate rather than work really hard for a hit-and-miss scenario of cut flowers."

However, the growth in bulb and tuber production during the past four years had counteracted the fall in cut flower returns, she said.

Bulb and tuber exports have doubled to more than $25 million in the past five years, but cut flowers remain big business globally, generating US$25 billion ($37.46 billion) of export earnings each year.

And although in comparison with the global market New Zealand's contribution is small, the industry has built a good reputation for high quality and exclusive flowers, Sheehan said.

But competition from countries including Equador and Columbia was increasing.

"We've survived and created this niche market because we've had products that have been exclusive to us in the world," she said.

"But as other Southern Hemisphere countries get into them we've got to try and get ahead of them because their cost structures are so much less than ours."

The future of the industry would be secured through research and development that would produce new colours, shapes and attributes including resistance to disease.

Calla bulbs were susceptible to rot, Sheehan said, which had not been so critical when the returns for cut flowers were good.

"So before, they [growers] were happy with only one flower to a bulb. Now they really need, to make it viable, three or four flowers to a bulb."

Scientific study undertaken by Crown research institute Crop & Food Research was pushing the boundaries of traditional breeding methods.

The aim was to develop intellectual property, new high-value flowers, bulbs and propagation techniques, said Graham Smellie, business manager at Crop & Food, "so people can take the new cultivar we've bred over many years and know how to turn it into a productive cost-efficient item for the market place."

Traditional techniques were used for cross pollination but the resulting embryo did not always result in a new plant or variety.

"What we do is have techniques where we take that embryo and develop it, and we call it embryo rescue."

This is then bred back into the parent stock in a search for new attributes, colours and shapes that can last years.

"It happens in nature but over thousands of years. We're trying to speed it up a bit," said Smellie.

Crop & Food, working with the local industry and Japanese growers, has developed a new red-coloured gentian, which will hit the market this season. Expectations of success were running high, Smellie said.

The red gentian is a product of a gentian breeding programme which began about 12 years ago.

Growth industry

Exports of flowers, plants, bulbs, moss and seeds:

(Year to June 2005)

$120 million of total exports.

$39 million of cut flowers.

$32 million of seeds.

$25 million of bulbs and tubers.