Your Mother’s Day flowers could be more expensive this year. Here’s why
Your Mother’s Day flowers could be more expensive this year. Here’s why
Kenya is a major exporter of cut flowers, and the country’s disastrous floods could have ripple effects throughout the industry.
Recent catastrophic floods in Kenya and other parts of East Africa have decimated the region, leaving more than 230 people dead and 47,000-plus households displaced.
The floods are also hitting the country’s agricultural sector hard, including its massive floral industry, one of the top foreign-exchange earners for Kenya. Cut flowers are the leading contributor to the country’s horticulture revenue, earning $560 million last year, according to a report from Bloomberg.
This could have an outsize impact on the price of flowers, particularly this Mother’s Day weekend.
The floods, which began at the end of April, have damaged greenhouses and impacted flower supply. The lower temperatures and excess moisture have affected both growth and quality. The heavy rainfall has also made roads impassable and impeded transport, Jack Kneppers, owner of Maridadi Flowers, told Bloomberg. He added that his April production numbers were below target by as many as 1.3 million stems.
Due to increased rainfall from El Niño, the International Organization for Migration called the floods the “harsh realities” of climate change.
While the U.S. isn’t a big recipient of flowers from Kenya (most of its flower supplies come from South America, according to the International Fresh Produce Association, or IFPA), extreme weather events like this are becoming more common and impacting supply chains globally.
For example, the Panama Canal had to reduce its crossings by 40% as of January due to drought. In Maine, the population of lobsters dropped by as much as 40% because of rising water temperatures (which are attributable to global warming). Flooding in 2022 in central China also disrupted supply chains, forcing the closure of a Nissan plant.
Coming into Mother’s Day weekend, prices at flower auctions are reported to have risen by as much as 15%, according to Royal FloraHolland, a Dutch florist conglomerate. Dutch florists export flowers across other European markets, including the U.K.
“Kenya’s flower industry has been growing in size and quality over the past several years,” says Deborah Zoellick, IFPA’s director of floral programs. “They’re an integral part of the floral supply to many. We hope that they recover quickly.”
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