Alumni Blog

Ecuador and the Flower Industry

The town of Cayambe is the hub of the flower industry in Ecuador.  Lining the mountains surrounding the town are rows upon rows of the white-roofed greenhouses.  The presence of these flower farms in Cayambe is a relatively recent development.  During the past ten to twenty years the flower industry expanded into Ecuador, converting farmland into space for greenhouses.  Today, Ecuador is the world’s largest exporter of roses, but the impact of this industry has not been positive for many Ecuadorian workers involved.

The popularity of cut flowers in many developed nations has risen tremendously in the past few decades; from 1990 to 2000 the cut flower business grew almost ten percent annually (http://www.cbc.ca).  This is largely due to a relative cost decrease.  During the 1990s, the production of many cut flowers shifted to developing nations across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, in pursuit of low wage workers and lower operating standards.  The labourers in many flower farms in the global south often lack proper training, are exposed to hazardous chemicals and processes without adequate protection, and are deprived of basic labour rights such as a fair, informed wage.  Many serious health problems such as skin and eye irritations, respiratory disease, and toxicity issues have resulted for labourers in these poor working conditions (http://www.cbc.ca).  Fortunately, there is an exciting alternative to the unethical flower farms in developing nations.  In 2007, the Fairtrade Foundation expanded into the flower industry.  Only within the past few years, widespread interest in Fairtrade flowers has begun budding. Currently, the Fairtrade Foundation recognizes 75 licensed flower varieties (http://www.fairtrade.org). 

The benefits of Fairtrade are many.  To be recognised as Fairtrade, a flower farm must adhere to basic labour and environmental standards.  Workers on Fairtrade farms are allowed services and rights which North Americans would often consider mandatory, including the right to join trade unions and negotiate on their conditions of employment, information of their wage rates and work schedules in advance, receive regular wages, access to safe drinking water, and be given personal protective equipment when handling hazardous chemicals (http://www.fairtrade.org).  Additionally, employees earn a Fairtrade premium which is collectively used for community or economic development projects.  One example of such a project funded by the Fairtrade premium is a program assisting children who have been orphaned by HIV in Kenya (http://www.fairtrade.org). 
There are currently around 10,000 workers employed on Fairtrade flower farms (http://www.fairtrade.org).  Thanks to an increasing interest by consumers, there is an increasing market for Fairtrade flowers, leading to growth in this industry.  Many online stores offer the option to buy Fairtrade flowers including, Next Flowers, Interflora, Sainsbury’s, and John Lewis (http://www.fairtrade.org).  At John Lewis flowers, an online flower store, Fairtrade varieties now total more than 30% of all flowers sold.  Unfortunately for Canadian consumers many of these sites are companies in the U.K.  Nonetheless, the trend is exciting and beginning to gain attention in North America.

My interest in Fairtrade flowers is fuelled by my witnessing the negative results that the unethical flower farms in Cayambe have had on the people.  While in Cayambe, I worked in the emergency room of a local hospital.  It was appalling to see how many labourers from the greenhouses came to the hospital to be treated for respiratory diseases and other related ailments.  The workers are not given proper protective wear; many times men would come in wearing rubber boats that had been cut through by heavy machinery and in the process cut or crushed their feet or toes.  I was most frustrated to see many of these labourers’ illnesses, as they are things that could be easily prevented.  Additionally, my friend Jen (another Canadian student volunteer) lived with a poor local family who was impacted by the greenhouses.  She came to the hospital one day upset because her twelve year old host brother, Adrian, had been recruited to work in the greenhouses.  While the wage this boy earned was pitiful (a few dollars a day), the family was in need of all the income possible.  I was over at Jen’s house only a few days after Adrian began working in the greenhouses when he came home from work.  He was filthy and tired and already coughing from the exposure to chemicals in the greenhouse.  It is difficult to see situations such as this, where a young boy trades time in the classroom for time working in a job that is detrimental to his health, to make things work for his family; however, in Cayambe, Adrian is not an exception, there are many families in the same difficult situation. 

I recognize that the flower industry provides jobs for the people of Cayambe, where many people are in desperate need of employment, but the current conditions of employment are unacceptable.  I think the Fairtrade flower option is a wonderful alternative, because it continues to provide jobs for people in the global south while ensuring that their basic rights are met.  It is encouraging to see Fairtrade flowers gaining popularity in North America and Europe.  I think many people in developing nations would be willing to pay a premium for cut flowers, something that is already a luxury for all of us.  The Fairtrade flower alternative already employs 10,000 workers in a safe and fair environment; it is my hope that awareness and interest in Fairtrade flowers by North American consumers will increase, resulting in more labourers in places such as Cayambe working in fair conditions. 

-Carolyn Wright, Intercordia Participant 2008 in Ecuador