colombian flowers and eco-labels santiago rojas arroyo geneva, october 2003
TRANSCRIPT
COLOMBIAN FLOWERS COLOMBIAN FLOWERS AND ECO-LABELSAND ECO-LABELS
SANTIAGO ROJAS ARROYOSANTIAGO ROJAS ARROYOGeneva, October 2003Geneva, October 2003
The The Colombian Colombian
Flower Flower IndustryIndustry
5906 hectares (15,000 acres) of greenhouses
US$ 672 million (2002) FOB exports
Generates over 88.300 direct jobs and 75.000 indirect
Around 800,000 Colombians depend on floriculture
65% of the employees of the flower industry are women
Industry dataIndustry data
Flowers are the first non traditional export (10.5% of NTE)
Flowers represent 4% of agricultural GDP
Equivalent to 16% of the GDP for the Bogotá-Cundinamarca region
Flowers exports account for 85% of the international air cargo of Colombia´s main airport (El Dorado)
Source DANE / DIAN, and ASOCOLFLORES
•Volume and Value of Flower Exports
-
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
19
70
19
71
19
72
19
73
19
74
19
75
19
76
19
77
19
78
19
79
19
80
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
US
$ M
illion
Exp
ort
ed
-
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
000
To
ns
Exp
orte
d
•Main export markets2002
•Main export markets2002
North America85%
European Union9%
Oher countries6%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Fuente: AIPH - Union Fleurs, Cálculos de ASOCOLFLORES
1999 - In Euros# Country Per Cap. # Country Per Cap. 1 Switzerland 82 14 Slovakia 28 2 Norway 58 15 Ireland 23 3 Austria 45 16 United States 20 4 Belgium 41 17 Spain 18 5 Denmark 39 18 Greece 14 6 Finland 38 19 Portugal 14 7 Germany 38 20 Hungary 10 8 Italy 35 21 Czech Republic 9 9 Sweden 35 22 Croatia 710 Japan 33 23 Poland
711 Netherlands 32 24 Slovenia
512 France 31 25 Russia
113 United Kingdom 30 26 China
1
Per capita consumptionPer capita consumption
Florverde®
Florverde®´s Goal
Sustainable and competitive floriculture
Economic, social and environmental sustainability
1. Personnel Administration • Contracts • Payments• Information to employees• End of contract • Files
Social Area
2. Occupational Health and Welfare•Hygiene and safety•Welfare programs for a better quality of life
3. Training and Development•Training of workers in their labor and in personal growth subjects
1. Pests and Pesticides
- Pest and disease monitoring (scouting) -Safe handling of pesticides -Reducing pesticide waste -Chemical risk control -Reducing pesticide use -Use of allowed pesticides in COL, EU, USA -No use of Methyl Bromide
Environmental Area
2. Soil and Fertilization
-Nutrient monitoring in fertilizing solution, substrates and soil, and in leachates and percolating water. - Soil properties.-Fertilizer storage.-Reducing nitrogen fertilizer use.3. Water
-Decision of amount of water used based on technical criteria.- Legal permit for water use. -Water meter at source.-Substitution of ground water by rain water.
4. Landscaping and biodiversity-Biodiversity and coverage.
-Permit by land planning authority.
-Esthetics at work place. 5. Waste-Responsible management of organic waste, other solid waste and pesticide packaging. -Zero effluents from postharvest activities or from pesticides or fertilizers. -Reducing emissions from boilers, ozone depleting substances (cold rooms) and no burning of waste.
Code of conduct (checklist)
Indicators
Farms
Florverde ®Florverde ®
Strategy 1: Benchmarking
Florverde®Florverde®
Strategy 2: Support
•Advisory visits
•Workshops and conferences
•Best practices manual
•Environmental guide for flower growers
GENERAL RESULTS 1996 – 2002
81% MONITOR SOILS, AT LEAST MONTHLY, FOR NITRATE CONTROL TO AVOID WATER POLLUTION
80% MEASURE QUANTITY OF WATER LOST BY THE CROP AND THE SOIL
81% PROCESS PLANT RESIDUES
91% MAKE THEIR PAYMENTS TIMELY
91% HAVE UPDATED EVALUATION OF RISKS IN HEALTH AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
Kilograms of pesticides used / Ha/ Year
100
110
150
1998 1999 2000 2001
Kg
.I.A
./H
a.
Average use of active ingredient per Ha
All types of flowers
120
130
140
160
YearsResults of high performance in more than 100 farms (67% of participants)
Document G/TBT/W/60
Despite the efforts described to improve environmental protection, the Colombian flower-growing sector has encountered restrictions on its exports by means of environmental measures.
These restrictions to have not taken the form of laws or labelling or packaging regulations, but have resulted from the proliferation of private environmental labels being proposed by a variety of organizations.
The proliferation of private labels sold by private organizations based on divergent and dissimilar criteria would lead to significant trade diversion by favouring demand for flowers displaying those labels, without adequately informing the consumer as to the nature of the labels, the way they are supervized or even how they actually come about. This could lead to market disruption which would then be very difficult to correct.
The most risky aspects of private eco-labelling are:• The lack of supervision or compliance with
internationally accepted standards guaranteeing transparency, impartiality and objectiveness in the demands made and the absence of monitoring to allow for self-correction.
• The absence of any common minimum parameters, which means that the consumer does not receive comparable and intelligible information.
• The impossibility of complying simultaneously with the different requirements and checklists issued by each organization for each country.
COLOMBIAN FLOWERS COLOMBIAN FLOWERS AND ECO-LABELSAND ECO-LABELS
SANTIAGO ROJAS ARROYOSANTIAGO ROJAS ARROYOGeneva, October 2003Geneva, October 2003