Ofcourse _Bloom_berg is reporting about this :)
For those not getting the pun: 'bloem' (pronounced 'bloom') is the Dutch word for flower ;)
The crash of the global flower trade
61–70 of 137 posts
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#62Basic economics, when times goed bad, you skip the things you want and focus on the things you need.
It's not really economics (yet), even if peopled needed flowers they can't get them because the store is closed. The basic economics comes next.
> even if peopled needed flowers they can't get them because the store is closed
If people needed them, the store wouldn't be closed as being a non-essential business.
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#63Cut flower export sounds like climate travesty; they are not essential, they are fragile (requiring energy-intensive cold chain logistics and air-freight) and after all that effort... they have a shelf-life of a week. If there is an industry that should be strictly localized, it's this one.
I would phrase it as "mispriced" as has much of the consumption that has occured for the last couple of hundred years. Seems the atmosphere is starting to call in the line of credit.
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't agree about not essential. If we go there, sooner or later, someone will show up and say Music is not essential, and why can't everyone dress like Zuck etc. But I do agree about local. I mean who doesn't want to walk by something like this everyday - https://scontent-yyz1-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t50.2886-16/93565...
> someone will show up and say Music is not essential Depends on your definition of essential, I'd argue 100% of the world population would survive just fine without music or flowers. Food is essential, water is essential, medicine is essential, shelter is essential. Some tulips imported for 2000km away aren't. I mean, do we really have to debate this ? If we go there, sooner or later, someone will show up and say Ke…
Are all those people really essential, or could we perhaps do with fewer people too?
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#65Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#66Cut flower export sounds like climate travesty; they are not essential, they are fragile (requiring energy-intensive cold chain logistics and air-freight) and after all that effort... they have a shelf-life of a week. If there is an industry that should be strictly localized, it's this one.
While I don't disagree, this applies to a massive portion of all consumer goods and speaks to commercialism, in general.
It is why the Fed specifically segregates "durable goods" in inflation, GDP, and price indexes.
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#67Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#68Meanwhile in South Africa there are food issues... Why not plant vegetables instead of flowers?
Also to note: workers get $70/mo, while all other middle-men involved get more.
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#69It's easier to make stories about businesses than people, but I really think we need more people stories now.
Rather than the flower trade having a downturn, what about all the people that planned weddings? A delayed wedding is apparently hardly a disaster, but what does it mean if nobody can get married for a half a year, what happens?
Re: The crash of the global flower trade
#70Cut flower export sounds like climate travesty; they are not essential, they are fragile (requiring energy-intensive cold chain logistics and air-freight) and after all that effort... they have a shelf-life of a week. If there is an industry that should be strictly localized, it's this one.
They also propagate pests. The olive industry in Italy is being decimated and the flower trade is suspected to be at the root.