Slacks Creek flower distributor flowerhub.com.au has become the first Australian company to declare where all its flowers come from.
The unregulated industry has been criticised for not supporting local growers, so owner Nicki Christensen has designed a flag system which shows where the flowers for each arrangement originates.
He says people now know whether they’re supporting local industry.
The system he has adopted is similar to a system used by florists in Holland.
“Some people in the supply chain have not been disclosing the origin of their flowers, so I’ve been harbouring the idea for about 12 months to do the flag system,” he said.
“There are companies that can’t tell you where flowers are from because they lost track, they have no data. Whereas I know exactly what day of the week they arrived, how fresh they are and where they’re from.”
He said there was occasionally pressure in the industry to support Australian-grown product.
About 60% of flowerhub’s produce comes from Australian growers. The business sells about 1.2 million bunches of flowers each year.
Other flowers come from about 10 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
Big-headed roses for example, come mostly from South America, although one local grower has found a way to grow them here.
Mr Christensen said there were a number of positives to come from Covid-19 for flower growers.
“Australia exports to the US and the supply lines have been cut, which has forced supply to stay onshore. That means there’s been a natural uptick in the local market,” he said.
“Yes, there are still a lot of foreign flowers, but with the flag system people know what they’re buying.”
