Valentine’s Day Romance — Where Do Your Roses Come From?

I am not the Valentine’s Day celebrating type. I never went out for dinner, gave or received gifts like chocolate or flowers on this day (you are fully entitled to call me boring). I know millions around the world do. Nothing wrong with it. I think celebrating love any day of a year is plausible.

My first Valentine’’s Day rose.

But have you asked yourself where some of these flowers come from? For the purpose of this article, I will mention one of those countries that has invested years and millions to become a major force in global horticulture in the past two decades — Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian flower industry, when it emerged in the late 1990s, represented an extraordinarily fast and successful diversification into a non-traditional export product. Despite being a late-comer, Ethiopia became the second largest flower exporter of Africa (after Kenya).

Tropical high-altitude climate that provides year-round natural light, cheap transportation costs, land farms being available at affordable price, government also offering attractive incentives for investors (for example, a five-year corporate tax exemption for inputs, import duties were scrapped and investors were also given access to financing from banks), better investment climate coupled with the hard working citizens of the country and their commitment to strengthen their country’s financial standing.

Between the late 1990s and 2015, the industry created 100,000 new local jobs. 70% of these workers were female, which was a silent but powerful move to empowering women from within. The flower industry hence was playing a major role in helping the country to become more dependent on trade and less on aid.

Roses on display at a flower shop. Source: Shutterstock

The market has been growing steadily, aided by the fact that the country also operates a world renowned airline industry. In 2016 alone, Ethiopia generated $275.45 million, a 10.7 percent increase from 2015. Ethiopia has exported $400 million worth of horticulture goods during the first nine months of the 2019 budget year began on July 8, 2019.