The cut flower sector is one of the great success stories in the history of Colombian exports. This achievement has been based on beneficial growing conditions and entrepreneurial skills of exporters to bring the perishable product to the foreign market, rather than on intensive breeding research.

Cut flowers have become Colombia's third biggest agricultural export crop, after coffee and bananas. From first export earnings amounting to US$ 20,000 in 1965, this figure has increased to around US$ 380 million in 1993. The country is the world's second largest exporter of cut flowers. In 1993, 450 flower growers had a total area of 4,200 hectares under cultivation, of which 90 per cent is in the Savannah of Bogotá. According to the Association of Colombian Flower Growers, Asocolflores, the industry employs over 75,000 workers, while approximately 50,000 indirect jobs are generated in the industries that supply inputs, services, transportation and marketing.
The success of the flower industry in Colombia has been based on various factors. Colombia has excellent growing conditions for certain varieties of flowers, such as carnations, roses and pompons. Labour costs are relatively low and Colombia is geographically close to its main market, the eastern states of the USA. About 77 per cent of the Colombian flowers are exported to the USA. The Colombians have developed flower processing technology and good distribution channels, with the international airport of Miami (USA) playing a key role. In the USA, the flowers are promoted by the Colombia Flower Council, formed in 1987 by the Colombian growers and the Miami importers, as well as by a common fund of flower growers and exporters, PromoFlor.
Colombia enjoys preferential treatment both in the USA and in the European Union, concessions which were granted in recognition of Colombia's fight against drug trafficking. This allows Colombian flower growers to enter both these markets with a 0 per cent tariff.

Flower sector under pressure
After the boost in flower production in the 1980s, the industry now faces various problems. Colombian flowers have become more expensive abroad because of a real appreciation of the peso vis­a­vis the US dollar (the devaluation of the peso keeps behind its inflation), while inflation at home is driving up the costs. At the international level, growers face a general oversupply of cut flowers and subsequent poor prices. Real flower prices in the USA have fallen 16 per cent between 1980­1990.
In Europe, the Colombians have to deal with increasing production from African countries, while in their main market, the USA, they face emerging competition from Mexico and Ecuador. The latter countries also enjoy favourable growing conditions and close proximity to the US market.
Ecuador is becoming a key player in the supply of high quality roses. The floriculture production industry in this country is only 10 years old and has been set up with support of Colombians. According to the Asociación de Productores y Exportadores de Flores (Expoflores), the flower industry in Ecuador comprises 80 firms, mostly located near Quito, the capital city. The area covered with greenhouse production is estimated at about 500 ha. The Ecuadorian flower exports (mostly to the USA) are estimated at US$ 40 million for 1993.
In Mexico, the acreage under greenhouse flower production for export increased from 100 ha in 1980 to 750 in 1992. Between 1988 and 1991 Mexican cut flower exports more than doubled. The Mexican flower companies have the advantage that they are closer to the USA and can transport their flowers directly to US cities by road, avoiding air transport and international brokers. Further, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will shortly eliminate US import tariffs on Mexican flowers. Another important advantage of Mexico over Colombia is that it has a large domestic market for flowers: 90 per cent of the flowers produced is sold locally, while in Colombia this is only 3 per cent.
However, according to flower market watchers in The Netherlands, Mexico has been considered as a promising actor in cut flower production already for a number of years without fulfilling its promises. The growers have to cope with a lack of effective production systems and entrepreneurship, too many political restrictions, and a lack of a sophisticated joint marketing strategy in the USA. The Mexican cut flower sector can, consequently, not take advantage of the levelling of international trade barriers. The Mexican flower sector is likely to grow, but is expected to remain directed to the domestic rather than the international market.

Absence of breeding technology
The Colombian cut flower production relies on germplasm from Europe, the USA, Israel and some other countries. This is remarkable for a country that is one of the world's centres of "mega biodiversity". Some of the commercial flowers grown in Colombia, such as alstroemeria, are actually native to Latin America. Colombian flower growers solely use varieties that are obtained from foreign breeders.
Rather than breeding, propagation technology is being developed in Colombia. Colombian companies obtain mother stock plants from abroad, select individuals that have a good performance under local conditions and propagate them. The company Meristemos S.A., for example, has specialized in micro­propagation of bananas, sugar cane and cut flowers. The company carefully screens selected ornamental plants for the presence of viruses through modern screening methods, such as ELISA. Cleaning of contaminated plants takes place through thermotherapy or cryotherapy. It takes four weeks for a cutting or shoot to generate a new plantlet that can be cut again. This generating process is repeated for 6 to 12 months resulting in an exponential growth of plantlets.
About four companies in Colombia are allowed by foreign breeders to propagate from a protected variety generations which are older than the mother plant. Propagar Plantas S.A., for example, receives from the foreign breeder cuttings or shoots of a very early generation of carnation varieties which are stored on a special substrate in the company's private gene bank. Depending on the demand of a specific variety, the shoots are developed stepwise into shoots of the mother variety. The shoots are cold­stored for a period of no more than 6 months and are taken out when the demand is sufficient. Then, specific hormones are used to stimulate root growth so that the plants can be sent to the farms. For every plant produced, royalties have to be paid to the foreign breeder.
Reliance on foreign breeders could be reduced when Colombian varieties are developed. But according to Mario Camacho, President of one of the largest Colombian flower companies, Floramérica, this requires a long­term development, especially because the technology is not publicly available. "Ornamental breeding technology is normally not described but kept private by small family­owned businesses where it is transferred from the one generation to the other. So we have to develop the technology ourselves. The methodology for crossing has been described, but not the process to get a red variety. We have the intention to develop our own varieties, however. We already can get seeds from crosses, but it will take many years before we get marketable results."
Another factor that tempers expectations about Colombian varieties in the near future is that there is no collective pooling of research resources by the private industry. A training institute dedicated to floriculture does not exist. Current floricultural training at university level only exists as a sub­discipline of broader agricultural programmes. And according to Andrés Laignelet, research manager of Meristemos, a wide gap exists between the basic research carried out at the Colombian universities, and the techniques his company needs. For that reason, Meristemos prefers to collaborate with the University of Pennsylvania (USA).
The payment of royalties for growing varieties of foreign breeders is not considered to be a big problem as long as business is profitable. The main point of concern for the flower growers is rather to get quick access to the latest flower varieties under reasonable conditions. Increasingly, the flower companies felt that the lack of sufficient intellectual property protection for the foreign varieties in Colombia restricted them in obtaining varieties of foreign breeders. For that reason, Asocol flores, has lobbied intensively for the introduction of a Plant Breeders' Rights (PBR) system. Colombia has PBR since October 1993. At that time, the Andean Pact countries, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia, adopted Decision 345 which established PBR in the four member countries.

Consumer sets production conditions
A relatively new challenge for the Colombian flower growers is that consumers in foreign markets make specific demands upon production conditions. In some European countries, especially in Germany, by far the largest cut flower market in Europe, Colombian flowers suffer from a dubious image. Several German human rights and church organizations have set up a Flower Campaign. The Campaign's newsletter, Flower News, has been publishing information about ecological contamination and social conflicts that apparently accompany Colombia's flower export success. In order to support Colombian flower workers in their attempt to improve wages, safety measures for the use of chemicals, and other working conditions, the Campaign urges German flower importers to deal only with 'clean' flower growers and exporters.  The Colombian flower exporters association, Asocolflores, rejects the accusations of the Flower Campaign. Its international manager, María Isabel Patiño, says: "the sector is probably not perfect. Things may happen, but human rights are not structurally violated. What may have been true years ago, is no longer the case. The present situation is that the flower industry puts various programmes in place to improve working conditions of its employees".
Currently, Asocolflores collaborates with the BGI, the German flower importers confederation, in designing a Colombia Clean Flower Declaration. The idea is that cut flower companies who want to export to Germany should sign this declaration in order to be placed on a 'white list'. With their signature, the companies declare that they strictly comply with all Colombian laws and norms concerning labour regulations, agrochemicals use and handling, and environmental and natural resources preservation. The companies also consent that their compliance may be checked by a third party.
Patiño says that Asocolflores is thinking of an ecological seal for more than two years and that the organization has prepared the first draft. Agreement among Asocolflores and BGI has not yet been achieved, either on the Declaration, or on the commission that would verify the implementation of the Declaration at company level. Colombia and the BGI did recently sign an agreement, but this was for the creation of the Colombia Flower Council in Germany in order to promote the consumption of Colombian flowers.
Jeroen van Wijk

Sources
FloraCulture International, 1993 and 1994, var. issues.

Monitor Company, Inc. (1993), Creating the Competitive Advantage of Colombia. Lessons from the Flower Sector. Cambridge MA, USA.

Vakblad voor de Bloemisterij, 1993 and 1994, various issues.