It hit hard today, the dearth of some products the market craves and the surplus of what the market does not crave. Little wonder that beautiful things become commodities traded for pennies rather than dollars. Thus perpetuates a cycle of products becoming loss leaders and an inability at times to wrest better compensation for all concerned. This price pressure is not a result of consumer demand but rather of the grower community looking over one another’s fences and collectively thinking the grass is greener over there. We have seen it of late in Gerbera Daisies and in countless other flowers at one time or another.
Today I was looking for lisianthus which has long been a popular item at Flowerbud, stand alone or in bouquets. Lo and behold a second farm I am familiar with has just made the decision to abandon the crop and go to Alstroemeria production of all things. No doubt this farm will do as good a job on this crop as any and I have nothing against Alstro other than the world can easily be awash in it and that the quality often needs be upgraded even as the price pushes down. There is, however, only so much needed, the majority of it being headed for big box bouquets with little value proposition beyond their gaudy and non-recyclable wrappings.
Why might a US Farm head away from a sell out crop only to rush into one that the South Americans flower empires can bury them in on any given day? It is beyond me in many ways but I do nontheless feel the old tickle of familiarity and temptation. Three decades of growing allowed me to look over more than a few fences and consider what I was seeing to be better than what I was growing. Very much like buying into the stock market as it peaks! However If I were investing in flower farms I do know one California farm that plays the market perfectly and is about to be handed an even bigger slice of the Lisianthus pie, without even trying.
I was always told that where there was muck and hard work there was money and very little competition. No doubt this equates to what we sometimes grow…or should grow.