The Mexican production of greenhouse vegetables has boomed, and so has the export to the US, the flower market is also rapidly evolving, sees Gilberto Rendon. With four decades of growing experience and being the vice-president of Foreign Affairs in trade organization CANAFLOR, he sees potential for further growth.
The Mexican flower market
First of all, Rendon provides us with some statistics of the current Mexican flower market. He points out that Mexico imports flowers from the Netherlands, mainly tulips, orchids, and plant propagating material. At the same time, the country also produces cut-flowers, mainly roses, carnations, lilies, chrysanthemums, gerberas, and many others for the Mexican market. According to the statistics provided by Rendon the Mexican cut-flower market accounts for 3 billion dollars with 25.000 – 30.000 hectares of plant and flower production. He adds that the sector provides direct employment for 1 million people.
Rendon points out that the market has been evolving positively. "The Mexican flower market is expanding quickly, not only in traditional channels but also in supermarkets. Over the years, Mexican growers were able to improve the quantity and quality of the flowers they produced. Aside from the professionalization of the sector we also saw an increase in investments, and until a few months ago we benefited from a quite strong currency," he says. Further, he believes that the recent election of a new Mexican president may lead to further improvement.
Holidays
He also draws attention to some of the opportunities that he sees for the sector among which the opportunity of Mexican holidays. "We have several holidays in the country and some of them are expanding into the USA because of the large Mexican population there. This is an interesting development, especially as the US is our main trading partner."
Also inside Mexico, he finds, holidays can contribute to the growth of the Mexican flower industry. He gives the example of the recent Mexican custom to give people yellow flowers on March 21. This "new holiday", as Rendon calls it, was inspired by the 'Floras Amarillas'/'Yellow Flowers' song from the Floricienta soap opera. He comments: "This song has made yellow very popular, especially among young people. It shows how social networks can help promote flowers to young consumers in Latin America."
Further development
That said, he highlights that there are ample opportunities for improvement and growth, saying: "The agribusiness is booming, but for the flowers we need to push more. Although growers became more professional and invested more, there is still a huge gap with other countries. Organizations such as CANAFLOR and the Mexican section of the IFPA make efforts to drive the sector forwards. It's equally fundamental that companies from other parts of the world help to further enhance the Mexican flower industry. We need more technology, variety protection, as well as better organization and promotion."
For more information:
Iguana Growers Mexico
Gilberto Rendon
[email protected]
+52 1 55 2909 8185
Mexico City, Mexico