The demand for roses has gone up as lovers around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The surging demand has led to shortages in supply in South Africa, partly blamed on climate change.
This is forcing local florists to import flowers, leading to the pushing up of prices.
However, this has not discouraged those wanting to make their partners happy, as many flock to flower shops to buy gifts to celebrate their love.
Online retailer Netflorist expects to sell at least 25 000 thousand bouquets this Valentine’s Day
“We are expecting to see 25 000 orders this year, which means we are expecting to create love and connection between 50 000 people. There is a sender and a recipient, we anticipate delivering 200 stems of roses to South Africans. My advice to anyone listening is to buy for the man in your life, they love to feel loved and appreciated too. We are seeing a change in trends to women also spoiling men on Valentine’s Day and that’s lovely to see,” says Head of Marketing, Savannah Plaskitt.
Climate change impact
Jason’s Flowers in Johannesburg also says its footprint has been expanding since the beginning of the week.
The flower store has been preparing for Valentine’s Day orders for about two months.
It says climate change has impacted the local flower market, and they have to import quality flowers to meet the growing demand, as Jevonn Mauritz from the company elaborates.
“Roses – they are a little bit scarce so that’s why we need to go to imports. We have to go to Kenya, which is going to cost you more. So, the roses as I said with the rain and the climate change, you don’t get your R15 roses or R20 rand roses; you are looking at a rose of R25 or R30 and upwards – but it is a decent rose.”
A florist in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, says that businesses are seeing bumper Valentine’s sales.
The florist has been preparing flowers for last-minute walk-ins.
A florist at the store, Sylvia Tabane, is also concerned about the prices of roses, as they have gone up due to the shortage.
She says they have to be creative to meet clients’ needs at prices they are prepared to pay.
“The challenges are very big because even if you try to save, you save a bit so that you can buy flowers. The prices are ridiculously high, so we are really under pressure. So, I don’t know what is causing these flowers to rise so much, even though we experienced the rain – I don’t know if maybe we had late rains or the markets or the farmers where they are buying the flowers.”
Qatar Airways doubles transportation of flowers
Qatar Airways Cargo says it had to more than double capacity to meet the demand for the transportation of flowers, dominated by roses, to various destinations around the world this February.
The company says in the past two weeks alone, it has added 400 tons of freight capacity to carry flowers out of Africa.
Chief Officer of Cargo, Mark Drusch, says the airline would have transported over 25 million roses by the end of Valentine’s Day.
“For the period pre-Valentine’s, we would carry double the volume of roses than the normal volume we would carry during a normal month and (this) also reflects that we double our freight capacity into the flower producers in Africa prior to Valentine’s Day, which ends up meaning just for their Valentine’s period, we’ll carry over 25 million red roses in particular.”
Florists say a popular trend this year is people gifting roses together with teddy bears, chocolate, a bottle of wine, or personalised gifts to their loved ones, boosting economic activity amongst local businesses.
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