The heavy snowfall and icy conditions on many of Europe’s roads are significantly hampering transport as well as reducing the actual sales that florists are reporting. Keeping the shops supplied properly hasn’t been this difficult in years and prices are, especially for the Christmas season, relatively low overall.
Many planes full of cargo intended for far-away destinations such as America remained stuck at Schiphol Airport for several days, the Dutch ‘Association of Wholesale Trade in Horticultural Products’ (VGB) reports. Cut flower sales at the Dutch Flower Group – one of Holland’s largest exporters – were 18 percent behind last year’s numbers, primarily due to restraint on the part of the supermarkets, fueled by uncertainty. Of the wholesalers that did manage to process their orders as normal, many were faced with significant delays nonetheless. That picture seems to be much the same for the whole of Europe.
Further abroad, the snowy conditions are wreaking havoc on Kenyan exporters as well. They had been hoping for a recovery as profits have been dwindling for the last two years, but are instead facing another winter of severe losses. Many flights to key European destinations have been cancelled due to the winter weather, resulting in another setback for an industry that was already hurt by last April´s volcanic eruption in Iceland, the economic crisis, and the value of the Euro falling.
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