Cut flowers | The industry here is growing

Sales of cut flowers are growing every year in Canada. But often flowers travel up to 10,000 kilometers before they end up on your living room table. However, many cultures exist in the country.

Prince Edward Island less far than the Equator

“Every year, we grow more than 10 million tulips. When we hit our stride, we manage to plant up to 250,000 tulips by hand every day,” proudly says Ann Carrière, Business Development Manager of Vanco Flowers Ltd. The company is located in Prince Edward Island. Ann Carrière lives in Montreal. She knows the company well, having seen it grow over the past decade.

The company is located a 20-minute drive east of Charlottetown, the capital of the island, once called “the garden of the gulf”. Originally a potato producer, Vanco Farms started growing tulips in 2006 with Vanco Flowers.

Everything is grown in gigantic greenhouses, almost 90,000 square feet. The bulbs are planted and then stored in the cold for six weeks to simulate winter. They are then taken out to put them in the greenhouse in order to reproduce spring and trigger growth. The hundreds of rows of flowers are completely automated, to move them in turn, to be cut by hand. Vanco Flowers’ tulips are sold in Quebec, Ontario and even in the northern United States, and transported thanks to a fleet of trucks managed by the company itself.

Vanco Flowers has developed a know-how that allows it to overcome the climatic challenges of the region. This is also one of the reasons why Bastiaan Arendse, co-owner of the company, arrived from the Netherlands to bring his expertise. The man is creative and full of new ideas to develop the company, such as growing straw to heat the greenhouses, which allows the company to be energy self-sufficient.

Yet, despite the success story of Vanco Flowers, Prince Edward Island does not have dedicated aid to support this industry, says Vicky Tse, communications manager at the Department of Economic Development, Prince Edward Island Innovation and Commerce.

From farm to wholesalers

FleuraMetz is located in an industrial area of ​​Saint-Laurent. This is one of nine flower wholesalers in Quebec, whose mission is to order flowers and then sell them to 700 florists in the province. Behind the walls of the building are the refrigerators where the flowers are kept, loading areas for the trucks and the administrative offices.

The company is also one of the distributors of Vanco Flowers tulips.

Some 30% of the flowers sold at FleuraMetz are imported from Ecuador, explains Alex Léveillé, installed in a large meeting room which serves as his office. In Canada, flower imports from Colombia and Ecuador together represent 70% of the flowers imported, which themselves represent more than three quarters of the flowers sold. To reach the country, the flowers are transported in refrigerated planes to Miami, Florida. Then, trucks, also refrigerated, will cross the United States and part of the country to reach wholesalers in Quebec and Ontario.

With examples of large-scale greenhouse cultivation in the country, one can imagine the opportunities for economic development.

Local also for flowers

The Niagara region of Ontario is known for its wine route, but there are also many farms, including flower crops. Palatine Fruit & Roses grew fruit before embarking on growing roses in the field in the early 2000s.

Eva Schmitz is the co-owner of Palatine Fruit & Roses. During the interview, she wears a sweater with the company logo, and she has the hands of a person who works the land.

According to Statistics Canada, Ontario was the largest grower and largest seller of cut flowers in the country in 2022.

Eva Schmitz’s farm is one of the few growing roses in the Niagara region. But the rose is in direct competition with the countries of the South: “Even if you don’t feel the competition at the shop, you really realize it when you go to the auction. Flowers from abroad are a real problem. People from Niagara travel to the farm, but for people from Toronto, for example, it’s more complex. They make do with what they find close to home. »

Despite the obstacles that the market encounters, Eva Schmitz is proud to have succeeded in growing roses in her region: “No matter who works on the farm, or which customers come to buy them, everyone is smiling. Flowers make us happy and happy. It is truly a privilege to work with a product like this. »

Quebec cut flowers are becoming more professional

The number of flower farms has tripled in five years in Quebec. In the majority of cases, these are small craft businesses. However, the industry is getting organized and perfecting its know-how.

“We are about to live our second season. We know more about what to expect, we are more in control and better prepared,” exclaims with a smile Caroline Vouligny, owner of the Pivoine Capano farm in Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, near Quebec City. She embarked on the adventure and bought this farm in 2021.

The farm which is located along the river exclusively grows peonies. “It’s an early flower, we need a lot of varieties to offer it as long as possible. She grows more than 200 varieties on a 1.5 hectare plot of land with 12,000 peony plants. In total, the harvest will last six weeks. Intense work accomplished in a short time.

Consumers may have become accustomed to finding flowers throughout the year thanks to imports, but Caroline Vouligny does not see seasonality as a constraint.

For her, the ephemeral aspect of a local flower is synonymous with discoverability: “If you start to be really interested in seasonal flowers, you can discover lots of new varieties, rather than clinging to a flower that you we hope to have as long as possible. »

Towards a Quebec industry organization

Caroline Vouligny is clear: “Each farm is unique, there is no one flower farm model. Recently, mutual aid and solidarity between farms have developed. With the Facebook group Les Fermières-Fleuristes du Québec created four years ago and which has nearly 600 members, flower owners exchange views, share their respective realities and help each other in their activity.

“Cut flower producers are getting organized to work together better. One of the objectives is to raise awareness among florists and wholesalers to encourage local purchases,” explains Caroline Martineau, regional adviser in agro-environment and ornamental horticulture at the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ). . When Caroline Martineau began the inventory of flower farms in Quebec a few years ago, there were about forty. Today, there would be more than 120 productions.

MAPAQ does not yet offer assistance for cut flower farms. But producers who are starting out can take advantage of the support available to agricultural businesses.

“What I notice is that the environment is getting organized. Before, everyone was in their own little business. But I think that by coming together, it will make people talk more about the flowers here, make them known to people,” she confides in a determined tone.

It is in this approach that the third edition of the Week of flowers grown in Quebec is organized throughout the province, which ends on July 16. A great opportunity to promote local flowers.

Towards a Quebec Flowers certification

The Aliments du Québec logo makes it easy to identify local products. But according to Caroline Martineau, the market is not yet mature enough for a Flowers of Quebec certification: “We should create an audit office. This generates costs and binding specifications. »

The identification of flowers from Quebec is also one of the five recommendations proposed by The greenhouse producers of Quebec, in a report published in December 2022.

The MAPAQ representative concedes, however, that promoting Quebec flowers, as is done for Quebec strawberries, for example, is an idea to consider. As for the certification, it will still have to wait.

This report was made possible thanks to an excellence grant from the Association of Independent Journalists of Quebec.