Flower importers feel the pinch as Iran war affects flight routes

The war in the Middle East is not just affecting petrol prices and travel plans — florists and their suppliers have suddenly found themselves unable to supply blooms due to the disruption of air freight routes.

Perth flower wholesaler Janki Shah says 60 to 70 per cent of the flower stock she supplies to florists comes from overseas, primarily Ecuador and Kenya, with the rest coming from within Australia.

"Last week, we had no flowers come in from Ecuador or Kenya," she said.

"All of the routes that we use go through the Middle East with Emirates and Qatar [airlines].

"We were able to pivot, get a few more local flowers in, get flowers out of Japan and a few more out of Malaysia and Thailand.

"This week we are back to having shipments on, because shipments have been rerouted through Hong Kong and through Singapore or via South Africa."

That means florists can again fulfil requests for particular flowers, but it will come at a cost.

"What we are seeing is freight rates are higher and we're already starting to see the fuel supplements that are coming through increasing [the cost] per kilo of flowers that we're bringing in," she said.

"In the longer term, there'll be cost pressure upwards for the consumer and buyers.

"At the moment, our biggest concern is what will happen around Mother's Day if the conflict doesn't stop very soon and we continue to have upward fuel prices.

"We're sending Mother's Day forms out now for florists with pricing and we've got to put a big caveat on all of those forms to say if fuel prices or routes aren't back to normal, we don't know what freight or fuel is going to look like."

Artificial flowers bloom

For Tracey Mills, who supplies florist packaging as well as artificial flowers, the conflict has lead to an unexpected increase in business.

People who have their hearts set on roses or orchids for an event have been seeking artificial versions instead.

Ms Mills said many customers were influenced by social media and insisted on replicating that exact look.

"At the moment it's the anthuriums, amaranths, and arum lilies or calla lilies that are flavour of the month," she said, crediting the popularity of those blooms to a TikTok video of a celebrity wedding.

"Then it's also been [artificial] orchids and roses that people have been buying — they can't get the fresh ones."

Ms Mills said even when florists explained that customers could stretch their money further by opting for locally grown fresh flowers, many still preferred for imported stock.

"One of my florists created a comparison and she explained, 'This is $4,000 worth of imported flowers', and it was mainly orchids and roses and there was not a lot to look at," she said.

"Then she said, 'This is $4,000 of local flowers', and it was a huge, big pile of gorgeous flowers, but it's just what the customer wants, and if they want yellow roses and there's only pink [available], they don't want that, they want yellow."

No roses grown in WA

Ms Shah said her business had managed to increase its orders from West Australian flower growers, but that supply was dependent on the seasons.

"We actually got in touch with a collective down south in Manjimup and they brought together about 28 flower growers, so we managed to get a couple of pallets of flowers from down south and we will continue that up until Mother's Day and then local production starts to slow," she said.

But those growers will not be supplying any roses.

"Victoria and New South Wales are really fortunate to have rose growers, but in WA we actually have nobody left that grows roses.

"Even local growers, they do fluctuate a lot in seasonality, so imports help to support the industry when we can't get [flowers] locally."