We Reap Hope

The floral industry in Colombia has kept active during COVID 19 crisis.  Flowers to some extent have continued their exports around the world but ironically, flowers were not to be seen inside Colombia for local consumption.  Local mass flower markets have been shut down by the government’s prevention plan as the quarantines started back at the end of March.  At the same time, growers were not able to ship their entire forecast and a lot of the flowers were simply destroyed.

Although the demand for fresh cut flowers was there by consumers, growers didn’t have a distribution system or wholesale to supply them to.    At Ball, we have close relationships with the entire local floral chain industry within the country, from growers and the Colombian floral association to flower designers and an opportunity rose as a major holiday as Mother’s Day was approaching and consumers were desperately seeking flowers to bring up joy at their homes.

There is where we decided to unite our strengths and reactivate the local floral market by creating “Cosechamos Esperanza, Unidos Podemos mas” (We reap hope, united we can achieve more).  Cosechamos Esperanza is an initiative with the objective to share the joy of giving and receiving flowers.  “Giving” by suppling flowers to a group of flower design companies through a centralized supply system that enabled them to reactivate their businesses where now Colombians have an option to share their feelings to their loved ones; and “receiving” by delivering happiness with hundreds of beautiful bouquets to less fortunate mothers during this crisis.  The idea is that every time a bouquet is sold through this group of flower designers, a bouquet will be donated. As the first couple of weeks went by, more flower design companies have joined the initiative where now we can bond with flowers to a more Colombians in Bogota and other major cities.  It is important to mention, that we all have been very careful at every stage of the chain to take the recommended measures by the health organizations to prevent the propagation of the COVID virus.

Many thanks to the following growers and flower designers who first believed in the initiative and have also donated their beautiful flowers and talents: Plazoleta Flowers, Flowers Don Eusebio, Flor Andina, Ora Floral Agency, La Petite Fleuriste, and La Fioreria.