Colombia Puts U.S. Flower Growers Under Pressure

Colombia's ownership of the U.S. flower market leads to American growers claiming their government is "working hard" to put them out of business, according to a report by McClatchy Newspapers on Friday.

There are two main reasons for the strength of Colombian flower exports. One is the international war on drugs, which over  20-years has seen the U.S. government spend millions to encourage Colombian farmers to destroy their coca plants and replace them with flowers, and the other is the U.S.-Colombian free trade agreement enacted in May.

The U.S. first began encouraging Colombian farmers to grow flowers instead of coca following the then president Pastrana's plea for help: "Developed countries should help us to implement … a plan for Colombia which will allow us to ….offer our peasants different alternatives to the illicit crop." This resulted in the 1991 suspension of U.S.import duties on Colombian flowers.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: Colombia Reports