Sourcing flowers: The issue with importsYvette

Fresh flowers that have been treated with love and respect.

At Bloom, we always do our best to source local botanical material that has been treated with love and respect by the people who have grown and cared for it. We also want to know that the people who grow our flowers are being treated with respect. We will not source product with the knowledge it has come from farms or manufacturers where people work in unfair, unsustainable or unsafe conditions.

Imported flowers are becoming increasingly common in Australia. Anyone who has travelled internationally knows how seriously Australia takes its biosecurity and quarantine laws, and flowers are not exempt from this treatment. As a natural material, flowers are subject to extensive fumigation before they reach wholesalers and florists. The chemical used to do this is methyl bromide.

Methyl bromide can harm not just the flowers, but you too.

Methyl bromide is known to be toxic to humans and is even illegal in some countries. Even short-term exposure can cause damage to the lungs, and long-term exposure is linked to neurological damage. 

Flowers that come into Australia must also go through a devitalisation process. This means that the flowers cannot be propagated here in Australia. To do this, the flowers are bathed in glyphosate for 20 minutes to complete the process. 

While the effects of using glyphosate are heavily debated, more information is emerging about the potential danger of long-term exposure to the product. Since the stems of imported flowers have been soaked in glyphosate, the residue of these may remain on the flower and in the water it’s sitting in. With flowers like roses that can easily prick the skin, this exposes florists to the chemicals directly. Long story short, when you use imported flowers, wear gloves! 

The other significant issue of importing is the lengthy supply chain process. Many of our flower imports come from developing countries, where working conditions in some facilities are questionable. There is also the environmental concern of the miles the flowers travel, and the carbon emissions this causes. When we buy local, or direct from farmers, we cut out many of these, reducing our environmental impact. 

Buying local is far better for the environment.

We dive deeper into importing vs. exports in our online course, Bloom in Business. Sign up for your free 30 min intro session here.