Florida horticulturists have plants robust and ready. The market is wilting
The unfolding national coronavirus saga has South Florida’s horticulture industry scrambling to ship tropical plants ahead of cascading statewide closures of businesses nationwide, threatening to leave them stuck with product they can’t sell.
Under normal circumstances, this is a bustling time of year for South Florida growers. The hibiscus, ferns, bromeliads and other tropical plants would begin shipping out in coming weeks for Americans to snap up at their local nurseries or at their local big-box retailers such as Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Additionally, in normal times orchids would be shipping out now for the two fast-approaching holidays that drive annual sales — Easter and Mother’s Day.
But these are not normal times.
At least 17 U.S. states have issued stay-at-home orders or at least a partial shutdown of all businesses except for those considered essential, such as groceries, gas stations and pharmacies. Three of the most populous states — California, New York and Illinois — are among them.
And that’s bad news for Florida’s horticulture industry, whose business involves growing plants and spices rather than traditional farm crops such as corn or wheat.
Horticulture revenue in Florida from roughly 2,000 firms, a large number in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, exceeded $15 billion before the spread of COVID-19 abruptly upended the U.S. economy, according to the Northeast Chapter of the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association.
“You have plants ready. They have to go out, they are sold already or grown to their right size,” said Jim Stribling, who runs the Redland Fruit & Spice Park in Homestead and has spent more than 30 years in South Florida horticulture. “A blooming orchid right after Mother’s Day is not worth anything.”
South Florida growers have experienced adversity before. Hurricane Andrew’s devastation in 1992 damaged more than 30,000 acres of farmland. Two years later the North American Free Trade Agreement left South Florida tomato and strawberry growers at a cost disadvantage to their competitors in Mexico. In both cases, growers reinvented themselves and moved into new specialty crops, including those meant to supply retailers, nurseries and landscapers nationwide.
And now the coronavirus is the latest challenge. Big retailers place their orders as much as a year in advance, but the growers are the ones who will suffer now because for the most part they will eat the losses from government-mandated store closures.
“I see this as having an impact on the entire orchid industry top to bottom, given that the orchid industry has changed from a much more boutique and specialized market to, in a large degree, a mass market,” said Martin Motes, whose Motes Orchids is globally known and has operated in South Florida for five decades. “People are not going to Walmart or big box stores to buy anything. … You are dealing with a perishable product. It’s not like they can ship this stuff to Home Depot and they can warehouse this stuff.”
Large local horticulture companies such as Costa Farms and Silver Vase have sprawling acreage dedicated to big buyers and seem sure to face challenges ahead. Marcella Lucio-Chinchilla, Silver Vase’s vice president of business promotion, said large grocery chains that buy the company’s orchid arrangements don’t have available warehouse space right now.
“People are still buying plants and flowers, they do want them. But they are not able to get them in the store because of the distribution channels affected by the panic buying,” she said, adding that product has been on standby even locally “because they don’t have enough personnel to deal with merchandise in Florida.”
Transportation companies that work with growers said late last week they were trying to move product ahead of stay-at-home orders across the nation.
“We are seeing the same volume, but a little quicker,” said Christian Molina, dispatch supervisor with Flora Logistics, said at the time. Flora Logistics is a Miami company that helps producers get their perishable products to locations across the nation.
As is the case across broad swaths of the economy, small growers are most at risk in the sudden and steep downturn.
“I really think this is likely to put a lot of small orchid growers, who have about 10,000 or 20,000 square feet of greenhouse space, out of business,” said Motes, who cautioned online sales might provide a bit of relief for some growers as people cooped up inside might pay a premium to have orchids shipped to their homes.
Smaller growers have relied on middlemen like Paul Philhour for their out-of-state sales. Based outside of Charlottesville, Virginia, Philhour’s Orchid Station supplies what are called “plantscapers” — companies that do interior decoration for high-end hotels and restaurants in and around the nation’s capital.
“All that’s closed down — basically it is Florida product that we are not able to sell anymore,” said Philhour, whose family-run company has operated for 33 years and boasts annual sales of around $800,000. “The bottom line is, how long is it going to take for the hospitality industry to resurrect itself? I suspect the need for blooming plants is not the highest on their list of priorities.”
For his own operation, Philhour guesses there will be a six-month lag between when the economy begins opening up and when his business returns to a semblance of normalcy.
If there is any good news for South Florida growers, it is that companies dedicated to growing snow peas, tomatoes, avocados and okra dodged the coronavirus implosion.
“We are approaching the finish to our season,” said Michael Carlton, director of labor relations for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
Workers were already in place to harvest these crops, and demand from consumers is greater than normal.
Going forward, the industry’s worries are like those of other sectors: What happens to the U.S. economy amid expected massive job losses and disruptions to workforce mobility?
“It’s obviously a concern,” he said.
This article has been updated.
This story was originally published March 25, 2020 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Florida horticulturists have plants robust and ready. The market is wilting."
