Why your supermarket flowers may have been dipped in weed killer
By By Laurissa Smith and Meg Powell. ABC News. Friday 14 February.
This Valentine's Day, many Australians will dash to buy flowers for their other half.
With cost-of-living pressures, supermarket blooms are a tempting option.
But that cheap bouquet comes with hidden cost — one that local flower growers say they've been pushing to reveal for years, with little to show for it.
Peak body Flower Industry Australia (FIA) estimates half of the flowers sold in Australia are imported.
That figure includes most flowers sold in supermarkets.
In 2022–23, Australia's cut flower imports hit $103 million in value, up from pre-COVID levels of $73 million in 2019.
Imports are mainly grown in Kenya, Ecuador, China, Malaysia and Colombia, where labour costs are low, and supply chains less than transparent.
FIA chief executive Anna Jabour believes imports have been whittling down the local industry for decades, unable to compete with what some have called slave-like labour conditions and poorly regulated chemical usage.
"Over the past 20 years there's been a 40 per cent decrease in flower growers in Australia, particularly rose growers have been hit the hardest," she said.
"I've had conversations with people who used to work in the factories that have the imports, that they're being told to put together bunches for five cents a stem.
"That's 50 cents a bunch; growers can't grow flowers for five cents a stem."
