BY MICHELINA ANDREUCCI
Demeter in Greek mythology was the goddess of agriculture. She controlled the fertility of the earth and was celebrated throughout Greece as the goddess of agricultural and fertility.
She was the protector of marriage and women and personified the devoted mother; often seen in imagery surrounded by flowers which symbolize new growth and new beginnings – Spring!
With the rains already upon us, a plethora of wild flowers have sprung into life in the Zimbabwean veldt.
Flowers that are visually beautiful and give a soothing and welcoming ambience have always been a part of African beauty and hospitality. Shona names such as ‘Ruvarashe’, ‘Ruvaramambo’, ‘Ruvaredu’, all make reference to the flower.
The importance of the flower in an indigenous Shona cultural context is expressed in such sayings as: ‘Ruva re moyowangu’ – flower of my heart, a term of endearment meaning sweetheart; ‘maruvaenyika’, refers to an unmarried virgin of marriageable age Zimbabwe’s national flower, the Flame or Gloriosa Lily, grows wild in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and has numerous other names including ‘fire lily’, ‘glory lily’, ‘climbing lily’, ‘creeping lily’ and ‘superb lily’.
The flower has a cup-like shape with the tips and edges of its petals curling backwards. The colour ranges from bright yellow to dark red. Although it is sometimes used medicinally, the flower is considered poisonous if ingested.
In the Ndebele culture, women often paint their homesteads with flower motifs, and ‘muhle’ means she is beautiful like a flower.
During the important Ndebele ‘inxwala’ festival – First Fruits ceremony, typically held at the beginning of a harvest, the people put flowers around the baskets of fruit and harvest produce. It is usually only after this ceremony that the new season’s grain could be eaten.
A discipline of horticulture, floriculture, also known as flower farming, is the cultivation of flowering and ornamental plants for the floral industry.
The global floral industry is a dynamic, fast-growing industry, which has achieved considerable growth during the past number of decades, becoming one of the higher-earning industries in many developing countries. As an agricultural activity, floriculture has the attraction of being a natural adjunct to the more traditional exports, such a tobacco, while the availability of ready markets in the developed countries is a powerful financial draw.
In the 1950s, the global flower trade was less than US$3 billion and grew to US$100 billion in less than 50 years.
The annual growth rate in the floral industry in recent years is said to have grown by 6%, with the global trade volume standing at US$101.84 billion in 2003.
Although Floriculture began in Britain as an industry in the late 19th Century, where flowers were grown on a large scale, the Netherlands is now the center of production for the European floral market, as well as a major international supplier to other continents.
In recent decades the dollar value of cut-flower exports in the US increased; cut-flower production was second only to tobacco.
In Zimbabwe the administrative facilities for flower farming have been in place since the establishment of farmlands. Prior to the land reform programme, the floriculture industry was a fast growing and highly export-oriented sector of the economy. 70% of the country’s flower production was exported.
The principal markets were the Netherlands – the main flower market (86%) and South Africa (6.9%); the balance exported to Australia, Far East, Germany, United Kingdom, and United States.
Zimbabwe was the third largest supplier of roses to the European Union.
With up to 350 hectares under rose production, producing approximately 18 000 – 20 000 tonnes of cut flowers, roses constituted approximately 70% of Zimbabwe’s flower exports, mostly to Europe.
Following improvements in planting and harvesting methods of proteaceae in the early 1990s, the export of proteas also significantly boosted export returns for Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe flower growers and farmers were actively engaged in the cultivation of flowers for export with close to 100% of all commercially grown flowers being exported to foreign markets, whilst employing approximately 8% of the total workforce on commercial farms.
Zimbabwe became the second largest exporter of cut-flowers in Africa, after Kenya, and the third largest in the world.
Notwithstanding that many flower growing farms were designated for resettlement, floriculture was forecast to grow by 20% per annum. Currently, Kenya is the largest exporter in Africa, supplying a large percentage of Europe’s flowers.
The success of the floriculture sector in Zimbabwe was based on a free-market situation requiring considerable entrepreneurial flair from producers. Zimbabwean producers had to meet high international standards regarding both, the quality of the flowers and the methods used to produce them.
Meeting these requirements required higher worker training, which in turn promoted greater job security and better working conditions for some workers.
In addition, producers had to meet the difficult challenges of growing export flowers that met the needs of the market; coupled with the consumers’ growing sensitivity to the environment-friendly technicalities of planting, growing, packing and delivery, International labelling programmes governing waste management, occupational safety and employment conditions created a “market incentive” for farmers to meet environmental and ethical guidelines in their cut-flower production.
Bankrolled by fees levied on all producers, the Export Flower Growers Association of Zimbabwe (EFGAZ), which was formed in 1995, provided training on the best ways to grow roses, proteaceae and summer flowers in order to protect the high standards required to retain the export market, as well as provide information on the latest floriculture trends.
As in many other countries, women constitute the workforce in floriculture in Zimbabwe, often the wives of permanent male farm employees; leading to an increasing number of permanent female employees, resulting in job security for women. This increased the number of two-income families living on flower-producing farms, thus raising the farm workers’ families’ standard of living.
In my profession as an interior designer/decorator and hospitality lecturer, I am frequently saddened to observe that many business offices, hotels and other hospitality venues in and around Zimbabwe have in recent years decided to cut down on floral arrangements; often, even important corporate and other banqueting event are rendered flowerless. Yet flowers are essential!
Flowers are the best way to communicate effectively with guests, clients, visitors, customers, friends and lovers!
Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher and a published author in her field. For views and comments, email: linamanucci@gmail.com
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