The global financial crisis and the revaluation of Colombia’s peso
are a hitting the country’s flower industry “dramatically,” the flower
growers’ association said Sunday.
According to Augusto Solano, president of the Colombian Association of Flower Growers, the situation is becoming dramatic
for the flower producers, most of them relaying in exports.
Of course,
in a time of recession, people want to save as most as possible and it
is better to refreain from buying flowers than milk. Therefore, the
exotic, delicate and cute Colombian flowers just will be ignored until
better times.
The flower producer said also that the traditional flower buyers like the United States, Russia and Britain have reduced their imports of this
Colombian product with about 25 percent.
Adding to the drop in export because of the crisis, the increasingly expensive peso is driving up the price of flowers to those paying with dollars or euros.
If the recession endures for a long time, the flower
industry in Colombia could be devastated, affecting thousand of flower
glower families.
Solano asked official measures from the Central Bank to interven in the rate exchange, something that the
government is not willing to do lastly waiting the behaviour of the
international markets.