CAMERON HIGHLANDS – Flower farmers here will be forced to dispose of newly bloomed blossoms if they are not sold in the next few days, after market demand dipped following the Covid-19 lockdown announcement.
The situation is so serious that thousands of flowers facing rot will have to be dumped.
One of the affected growers, who wanted to be known only as Teoh, told The Vibes that her family-run farm has been severely hit as nurseries that buy flowers from them to sell to the public have been forced to close during the lockdown.
She said her farm will have to discard 600 pots of chrysanthemum if there is no other buyer soon.
The only way to prevent this is to encourage people to purchase flowers via online platforms, she said.
“Flowers have a lifespan (of) only four to six weeks, and if we don’t sell them off in time, they will wilt.
“This lockdown is also (during) the chrysanthemum’s blooming season.
“We cultivate flowers only for confirmed orders, and this time, we produced 1,000 pots, but are left with 600 because nurseries cannot operate.
“When we put ourselves in their (nurseries’) shoes, we understand their situation, but in the end, we are the ones running at a loss.”
There have been requests for flower farmers to give out their blossoms for free, but Teoh said this cannot be done because there are shipping and packing fees for each pot.
She said she will spend more money trying to give away flowers as opposed to just trashing them.
The estimated cost for a pot of chrysanthemum, including manpower, materials and packing, is RM4.
However, Teoh and her family are trying their best to minimise wastage in these tough times.
“Flowers are not essential, hence, no one really bothers about them.
“During the first movement control order (early last year), we could still push out flowers to the Singapore market. We also organised a group to encourage buying and selling online.
“We managed to let some of them go, but there was still a lot of wastage,” she said, adding that she is now trying to sell off her current batch on e-commerce platform Shopee.
Photos of discarded packed flowers have been making the rounds on social media, with some farmers citing losses of up to RM50,000.
Flowers come under the agricultural sector, but florists are not allowed to operate as they are not classified as an essential service. – The Vibes, June 5, 2021
