an investigation by Hugo Clément on France 5

This is the story of a hydrangea grown in Brittany. One fine day, we cut its stems to make a bouquet that we install in a pot, then in a truck. But the hydrangea bouquet does not go away on its own. He was fitted with a GPS tracker to track his long journey.

The fate of this hydrangea is told by Hugo Clément who conducted the investigation for the magazine On the front :

“A day after leaving Brittany, he was in the Netherlands. From the Netherlands, which is a huge logistics platform for the distribution of flowers all over Europe and all over the world, this bouquet came back – to our great surprise – in France, to be sold to a florist in Île-de-France.The bouquet transited through a foreign country when it ended up being sold here!

In total, 1500 km for the bouquet, between its starting point (Brittany), its transit through the largest flower market in the world (Aalsmeer in the Netherlands) and its return to the Paris suburbs (Viroflay). Hello carbon footprint…

And again the hydrangea, he took the road. Because, every day, 1 million roses are picked in an Ethiopian farm of 5 hectares. These roses travel by air, again to the Netherlands before being transported throughout Europe. A specialized laboratory has established the presence in each flower of around forty products, including banned pesticides.

“The advantage of horticultural farms that grow only roses and are installed in Ethiopia or Kenya is that there is no need to heat the greenhouses. The labor is also much less Dear…

On the other hand, pesticides are used in very large quantities. In Ethiopia, in the warehouses where pesticides are stored, there are several products that are no longer used in Europe and which continue to be applied to flowers in Africa. So they arrive on our market having impacted the local environment with prohibited products. Around the cultivation area, a lake is totally polluted by the release of chemical residues.”

“These flowers sold here are grown with products banned in the European Union.”

Hugo Clement

at franceinfo

French florists have nothing to do with this complicated and little-known business. If these flowers which have crossed borders or screens, end up in their stores, it is in particular because of the limited supply of French flowers. But the cut flower sector, grown in compliance with regulations, is picking up a bit.

Before buying a bouquet for Valentine’s Day or another occasion, find out where the plants come from. And if you can, offer flowers produced in France.