Italians spend 80m in flowers on Valentine's Day - Cia

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 14 - Italians will have bought around 35 million flowers to a total value of 80 million euro by the end of Valentine's Day, the floriculturalists of farmers' group Cia-Agricoltori Italiani said on Wednesday.
    The figures are in line with sales in 2023.
    However, Cia said the sale of flowers grown in Italy is expected to increase by around 20% this year due to the rise to 8-10 euro per stem in the retail price of long stemmed roses, which typically come from abroad.
    By comparison, a mixed bouquet of Italy-grown freesias, anemones, ranunculus and carnations costs in the region of 25 euro.
    Unlike in northern European countries, the Italian cut flower sector is closely linked to the annual festivities of Valentine's Day, Women's Day on March 8, Mother's Day on the first Sunday in May and the Day of the Dead on November 2.
    Together, these occasions account for more than 50% of annual purchases.
    Separately, Coldiretti said Wednesday that Italy's floriculture sector boats around 17,000 companies employing around 200,000 people and is worth 3.1 billion euros.
    However, it added that the sector is now negatively affected by the climate crisis, rising production costs linked to energy prices and unfair competition from abroad, with imports of plants and flowers reaching almost 900 million euro in 2023, up 33% over the previous year.
    Often these products are obtained through labour exploitation, such as in the case of flowers from Kenya and Colombia, Coldiretti said. (ANSA).