Record rain in Colombia threatens flower exports

Record sogginess threatens Colombia’s flower industry as the sector is gearing up for one of the biggest dates of the year - mothers day.

Some of the heaviest rains in Colombia’s history have killed at least 418 people, damaged or destroyed 140,000 homes and affected three million people over the last several months.

Now the country’s brutal weather could have an additional economic kick felt in South Florida, as the country misses out on a Mother’s Day export boom.

Colombia’s National Association of Flower Exporters said some of the country’s prime flower farming areas were among the hardest hit by storms that have intensified over the last two weeks.

While the association is still trying to tally the damage, some farms particularly in the savannah north of the capital have been totally wiped out.

“On an individual basis, there are some dramatic cases with total losses and farms that are completely underwater,” said Augusto Solano Mejia, the association’s president.

“But it’s impossible to generalize.

We still don’t know how many acres were affected.

But we’re trying to resolve these issues and help producers ship their holiday orders.”

Solano estimated the damage could range from 5 to 15 percent of national production.

The agricultural assistance program for the municipality of Chía one of the nation’s major flower-growing areas said it estimated that 60 percent of the region’s farms had been damaged.

The hit comes as growers were preparing shipments for Mother’s Day on May 8 when a quarter of all flower sales take place in the United States, according to the Society of American Florists.

Colombia is the United States’ top flower exporter, supplying 65 percent of all the country’s fresh cut flowers.

And Miami handles 89 percent of all flower imports that come into the United States.

At Don Eusebio Flowers in Chía, the 50-acre farm has been using three boats to ferry workers into the installations and flowers out, after they were surrounded by several feet of water last week.

“This has been a logistical headache but we haven’t missed any of our orders,” said General Manager Luis Fernando Nieto.

“For some of our workers, particularly the older ones, this if the first time they’ve ever been in a boat.”

The rains couldn’t come at a worse time. Colombian growers were already reeling from a weak dollar, which makes flowers more expensive, and the U.S. decision in February to allow trade preferences to expire.

As a result, Colombian flowers are slapped with a 6.8 percent tariff.

“This has really been a perfect storm for flower growers,” said Jose Azout, the president of Alexandra Farms, a 20-acre operation in Chía that exports about half its production to the United States through Miami.

“There are not going to be many flowers for Mother’s Day in the United States this year.”

Azout said one of his farms is being protected by sandbags, but another is facing a rising water-table that threatens to rot the roots of the flowers.

“If the rains continue for three or four more days we will be affected,” he said.

Christine Boldt, the executive vice president of the Association of Flower Importers of Florida, said that as damage reports come in from Colombia, some Miami companies are scrambling for alternatives.

But the very nature of the Mother’s Day should help forestall a major crisis.