Business blooming for Cape Town flower growers

Business is again blooming for flower growers at the Phillippi Horticultural area of Cape Town as COVID-19 regulations are eased.

 They say they had to employ extra staff for weeding, cutting and planting that had fallen behind during lockdown.

With no weddings, no Easter weekend gatherings, and no large scale parties, the demand for flowers were at its lowest.

Farmer Gunter Engelke says it was a hard three months.

“Business was not bad, there was no business, it was a hard three months, for three months all the production we worked hard on was for nothing.”

With no shelf life, flowers have to be sold within five days of harvest.

“Luckily at the moment we are employing a few casuals because of lockdown things fell behind a bit, we had to do weeding, you have to get rid of grass, your old cuttings and stuff that fell behind at lockdown. We’re quite lucky that all our employees are back at work.”

The Philippi Horticultural area says it’s fortunate that they supply local businesses. Some suppliers came to stock up for weekend events.

Makwenkwe Nato runs a flower selling business at Crossroads known as Kwesta Nato Events.

“Before COVID-19 we struggled to find flowers and  people had no money, it was very bad.”

Kay de Vos of Casalaflora says business is picking up for her wedding and funeral decoration service.

“It’s picking up slowly, after three or four months it’s picking up slowly, but not like a year ago where there was a lot of business.”

Farmers hope that business will soon pick up to pre-lockdown levels.

Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)