Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411070081
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CALVIN WOODWARD ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The ultimate symbol of love is at the heart of a bitter dispute between U.S. and Latin American growers that could make romance a bit more expensive.
An industry graced with variety names like Only Love, Joy and Darling is showing its thorns, caught up in accusations of marketplace mischief and other florid rhetoric.
At stake may be the survival of an already diminished industry, relations between hemispheric neighbors, and the price and choice Americans see when buying their favorite flower.
American growers are attacking imports of Colombian and Ecuadorean roses, believing unchecked shipments from those countries will put them out of business as surely as U.S. carnations have withered.
``We've got a steamroller right on our behinds and it's gonna roll right over us,'' said Jim Krone, vice president of the Roses Inc. growers association in Haslett, Mich.
U.S. trade authorities recently ruled that the imports appear to be coming into the country at prices below fair market value, an illegal practice known as dumping. Colombia and Ecuador deny it.
Regulators attached preliminary duties of 33.9 percent on Colombian roses, the major producer, and 49.8 percent on Ecuadorian roses. Those hefty penalties could be raised, lowered or dropped when final decisions are made in six months or so.
At least until then, the consumer might have to dig a little deeper for each rose he buys.
The war of the roses takes up a dozen feet of file space at the Commerce Department, sharing shelves with disputes more characteristic of the clunk and grind of mass industry - carbon steel pipe nipples from Mexico, wheel inserts from Taiwan.
The whole situation has raised tempers in Bogota, proud of its ``Colombian flower miracle.''
Officials there see the flower industry's success as a reward for their tough march to market liberalization, a better way of life for up to 100,000 people employed through the Andes, and a legal alternative to the rural drug trade.
The quarrel obscures another seeming miracle - the deft dance of mercantilism that speeds the perishable rose from faraway greenhouse to almost any house with its fragrance intact, its petals yet to open.
Although Krone says you can still ``buy a Connecticut rose in a Connecticut shop,'' imports have taken over half the market and sophisticated greenhouses in California and a few other states serve much of the rest.
Roses come by plane from across the country or from Europe and end up in the hands of buyers as soon as two days after being cut.
From Colombia, they go by plane to Miami, a two-hour trip, and then by truck to places like Paul's Wholesale, where radiant bunches of Royalty from California are stocked alongside boxes of the elegantly brassy Madame Delbard from Colombia. Both are deep red.
Dennis Paul, 55, remembers Better Times and Happiness, two popular varieties of his youth when the industry was strong.
``Thirty-five years ago, all of our product was American-grown,'' he said. ``Our most beautiful roses were really grown on the East Coast.''
But suburban sprawl conspired with other factors to overcome the greenhouse ranges.
In 1971, the country's 323 rose growers supplied almost the entire U.S. market. Now the 213 remaining growers have less than 50 percent of the market.
In that time, the carnation industry has been decimated, with 120 growers left out of 1,525, and imports making up 85 percent of sales.
``If the duties are upheld, it will probably spell survival for the remaining domestic growers,'' Krone said. If not, ``in three to five years ... we may not be here.''
The import price for the premium Madame Delbard was 35 to 38 cents per rose at Miami International Airport one recent week. Some Washington shops are selling it for $3 each, when bought in a dozen.
Some wholesale prices already have gone up to reflect the duties.
``Clearly I'm not going to eat it, so it is going to be passed on to the consumer,'' said Bill Pacella of the Washington Florists Exchange.
Growers say the Bush administration's removal of an 8 percent flower duty - part of an incentive to draw Colombian farmers away from cocaine-producing cocoa leaves - spurred competition against an already weak U.S. industry.
With new market openings in Europe, Latin American producers are using profits from those sales to subsidize their low-priced U.S. business, the growers say.
U.S. wholesalers have complained bitterly about the growers' push for duties while organized florists have called it a ``futile effort.'' Both groups hope for an accommodation.
Five Washington law firms are busily waging the war of the roses in legal briefs, attacking an ``outrageous assertion'' here, a ``fallacious'' argument there, and slamming ``self-serving ad hoc extenuations unworthy of being seriously considered'' for good measure.
No sign of anything to be sealed by a large pink Diplomat, much less a small salmon Kiss.
A LOOK AT THE ROSE INDUSTRY
U.S. GREENHOUSES: Capable of growing roses in cycles of 42 to 47 days, using high-pressure fog for humidity and cooling and carbon dioxide to enrich air.
SHELF LIFE: Growers say cut roses can be stored under ideal conditions no longer than seven days.
WHO BUYS THEM: Germany is No. 1 consumer, then the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Britain.
WHEN: Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Christmas are key U.S. dates.
HOW MANY: Americans bought 1.2 billion hybrid tea and sweetheart cut roses in 1993, double the number of 1984. Of those, 694 million were imports.
WHAT KINDS: Seven in 10 roses sold in the U.S. are red. Among Colombian varieties hit with duties: Visa, common street vendor rose; Madame Delbard, prized for long stem and large head, and sell for about $36 a dozen in major U.S. cities.
IMPORTERS: Colombia and Ecuador sent 543 million roses to U.S. last year. Colombia says up to 100,000 people employed in industry.
DOMESTIC: California grows more than half the roses produced in the United States. Number of U.S. growers: 213 in 36 states, down from 323 in 1971.
Sources: U.S. Agriculture Department, Roses Inc., Colombian government
by CNB