Can you get sustainable imported flowers?

While stocking UK-grown flowers is an obvious way of offering a sustainable choice to your customers, promising an all-British range throughout the year is not a realistic business option for many florists. Consumers are still calling for year-round cheap carnations and colourful wedding blooms in winter, and if florists can’t provide it, there’s probably a big corporate company that can.

If you know your customer base isn’t ready to give up year-round roses, keep an eye on our 60-second reads as we’ll be sharing much more about this.

It IS possible to buy imported flowers with some kind of sustainable status. This usually means stocking blooms that have been labelled with ethical stamps of approval, and in fact you’re almost certainly doing it already. The easiest way to guarantee you’re buying flowers that have come from an ethical, sustainable farm is to look for labels stamped on their packaging. There are tons of schemes, certificates, logos, stamps and labels that all support a cause by focusing on a certain part of the supply chain. Some of the most common ones are: Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, MPS, Florverde, KFC Gold and Silver. We'll share more about them in our next reads. 

The key thing to know is, in terms of imported flowers, when we say the word “sustainable” we’re talking about two things:

Environmentally sustainable – which means the flower farm abides by rules set by the internationally recognised organisation GlobalGAP. These rules include working practises that impact the planet including but not limited to pesticides, chemical and energy use, water and waste.

Socially sustainable – which means the farm meets standards regarding its treatment of employees and people, as with the famous stamp Fairtrade. In deprived rural areas, ethical farms can have an enormous positive impact on local economy and community.