“Moderate optimism regarding this important date”: Asocolflores about the Valentine’s season

File photo. An employee organizes bouquets of flowers to export, before Valentine’s Day, in a farm in Facatativá, Colombia, February 8, 2018.
 

With moderate optimism, Colombian flower growers await the next Valentine’s Day in the United States, due to the uncertainty generated by the pandemic, according to the president of Asocolflores, Augusto Solano, on Caracol Radio.

“It is very important to bear in mind that part of the success of flower exports depends largely on the logistics chain. In the midst of the extreme sanitary conditions that the country has been facing “Solano assured the station.

The president of the entity also pointed out that the new restrictions faced by international markets due to the third wave of covid-19, will be the protagonists in flower exports during this celebration.

Augusto Solano also shared with the radio station that the flower growers have managed to preserve the more than 140 thousand formal jobs generated by the sector and have their working conditions assured, taking into account biosecurity measures and with strict prevention and hygiene standards.

Finally, according to the information from Asocolflores, on February 14 this celebration will take place for the first time in the middle of a pandemic. However, The entity is convinced that buyers trust the quality of the phytosanitary processes of the Colombian flower industry.

Operation Valentine 2020

“Thanks to the arduous planning work carried out by Asocolflores since the end of last year, Petal Plan and to the decisive commitment of the Ministry of Agriculture, all the actors and the conditions required to attend the next Valentine’s season are ready and give us relative optimism in the face of this important date that is coming, “the president of Asocolflores assured the Diario Occidente .

According to the information shared by Cali, Augusto Solano highlighted that for this year’s Valentine’s Day celebration “E-commerce will play a very important role in the sales of large chains and florists. We know that this is a channel that is gaining strength every day and we have worked hand in hand with our international allies to promote it, which also allows us to get closer to the new generations in a very important way ”.

For the Colombian Association of Flower Exporters, the implementation of the Petal Plan will become very important during this Valentine’s Day. This project was conceived and led by Asocolflores since 2006 and seeks to coordinate the authorities and the logistics chain at the national level to promote good practices, minimize risks related to mobility and cargo flow, as well as prevent illicit activities, especially those related to with pollution and theft.

As reported by Diario Occidente, President Solano stressed that, “The Petal Plan, created and led by the union since 2006, will strengthen the systematization of different processes in the logistics chain of the sector to avoid physical contact and reduce the risks of contagion by covid-19”.

With this general overview and according to the information from the Cali newspaper, Florists expect to export more than 700 million stems during the Valentine’s Day celebration in the United States, representing about 15% of their total exports for the year.

Augusto Solano shared three goals achieved during 2020, despite the global pandemic:

“In the first place, comply with all the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and the territorial entities to continue operating with the highest standards of health and safety. Secondly, to minimize the social and economic impact of the communities where we are present, ensuring the more than 140 thousand formal jobs generated by the sector, ”said the president of the entity.

Finally, he affirmed that they managed to lead a national movement from the flowers that demonstrates the commitment of the different sectors with the human being as the central axis of the reactivation. “In 2021 this commitment will remain intact and we will develop new actions to promote it even more,” said Solano in Cali.

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