COLOMBIAN FLOWERS AND ECO-LABELS SANTIAGO ROJAS ARROYO Geneva, October 2003.

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