Budding market: hopes of a revival in UK cut-flower production

From the tip of Cornwall to the far reaches of Scotland, the shoots of resurgence in the British cut-flower market are raising hopes of a fledgling return to home-produced fragrant flowers becoming a bigger part of the £1bn industry in the UK.

UK flower production bloomed to £179m last year, according to figures from Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, up from £126m in 2019. The market has been dominated by imports, usually from Holland, for more than 50 years, but last year imports fell slightly to £761.8m from £869.1m in 2022.

Imports still dwarf sales of home-grown flowers, however, and the production of perfect blooms grown abroad and flown or freighted in has a significant environmental impact. About 90% of flowers sold through florists, supermarkets and wholesalers are imported not just from Holland but also as far afield as Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

At least one piece of research has concluded that imported flowers produce far higher CO2 emissions given long-distance transport and energy-intensive cultivation methods. It found that a mixed bouquet imported from abroad can generate up to ten times more emissions than one grown in the UK, emphasising the environmental benefits of supporting local growers.

Olivia Wilson, a grower and co-founder of the London florists Wetherly , also points out that imported flowers have less scent, because they are bred to withstand the stress of international shipping and mass production rather than to use energy producing fragrance.

So the small but significant increase in the production of UK-grown flowers is being seen as good for the environment and a small tilt towards tackling climate change.

"There is definitely a trend in increased popularity of British flowers," said Harriet Smithson of Cumberland Flower Farm.

"We can see British flowers contributing to an increased proportion of the value of the total flowers used in the UK. This is excellent, and really reassuring. This isn't a one off."

The data is not the whole picture. It does not include stems produced by small artisan growers, many of whom grow flowers on plots of under two acres. Their production is so small that their contribution to the market is not calculated, but estimates suggest it could be worth millions of pounds a year.

The number of small growers has increased markedly in the last 10 years. Membership of Flowers from the Farm , a network of small growers, has increased to more than 1,000 since it was set up more than 10 years ago. It now has members from Cornwall to the Isle of Skye.

Celestina Robertson, who owns the Forever Green Flower Company , produces stems from a rented one-acre site in north Norfolk. She has been a small producer for 10 years. "Over the years there have been issues in the global flower industry in terms of labour exploitation and the impact on the environment," she said. "I wanted to start a flower-growing businesss where we grow flowers ecologically and think about the connection between people and their environment.

"I get an output of about 180,000 stems a year, which is obviously tiny compared to the billions of stems being imported into the country each year, but I have a hyper-local market supplying customers in north Norfolk and our flowers are a sustainable alternative to cut flowers in a global industry that is inherently unsustainable."

Smithson believes small producers could be contributing about £20 million a year to the sector, based on 1,000 businesses growing 1,000 stems a week during a full season, which is a small but not insignificant industry input, she said.

But the market continues to be dominated by imports, according to Roisin Taylor, an artisan producer who has been researching the British flower industry for several months.She said a number of key issues needed to be addressed to help small producers, including government recognition and support for the horticultural industry in general, and within that the cut-flower sector, as well as logistical problems including the difficulties smaller producers face in getting their produce to florists to be sold.

"My research suggests this is a strong British industry, but not a strong enough British industry," she said. "At the moment there are not enough ways to get the flowers into the florists to reach the customer.

"It is fantastic that imports have gone down and that smaller growers are in a resurgence, but that cannot continue unless we get certain infrastructure in place and get support from Defra to recognise this amazing industry, one which is a huge boost to local economies and also does amazing things for biodiversity and wildlife."

In an effort to address some of the problems small producers face, Flowers from the Farm is becoming a trade association next month, intending to encourage more people to grow cut flowers for market and promote local and seasonal flowers.

The resurgence of small-scale ecological flower farms was a great step in the right direction towards reinvigorating the British homegrown market, Wilson said, adding that farms now needed to scaled up to grow for the wholesale market in order to offer a viable homegrown alternative to imported flowers grown as monocultures.

Small producers would also like to see a legal requirement in the UK to label the country of origin on cut flowers. Waitrose is one of the few supermarkets that does so, and it told the Guardian: "We're really proud of the long-standing working relationships we've nurtured with our trusted British flower growers."