By Rose farmers expect their sales to be 30%-40% higher this Valentine’s Day as fewer imports prompt people to buy local
Covid-19 hit the global flower trade hard. Losing $1.5bn in 2020, leading flower farming countries such as Kenya and Colombia were unable to export, leaving an industry of workers unemployed. And, in Australia, the downturn was also severe.
“We went out of production for a few months in 2020,” says Robert Piccolo, who runs Queensland’s Basilisk Blooms with his wife, Heidi. “We couldn’t send stock to Sydney or Melbourne because of the borders closing. It was dire at first.”
