Russia: Demand for flowers is changing

Large heads and long stems have been the standard for the Russian market for decades. However, when the crisis kicked in about 3.5 years ago, the demand from this flower loving country started to change. The ruble almost halved in value and fluctuated heavily which made importing flowers expensive and placing orders risky. Importers were forced to change to less expensive flowers. Fortunately, the ruble started to stabilise a bit over the last year and it seems to offer opportunities for different varieties and products to enter the market. At the FlowersExpo many of these non-traditional flowers attracted the attention of the visitors. Craspedia, garden type roses, preserved roses, pot anthuriums with small flowers and small flowered gerberas were some of the many 'new' products that caught the eye of the visitors. Interestingly, the tinted gypsophilla attracted less attention than expected.

FlowersExpo
Today is the final day of the FlowersExpo. Russia is a flower-loving country and this is again visible at this show. All the floristic workshops and novel varieties catch the eye of many visitors. For the exhibitors, this show enables them to meet new and existing customers, show their varieties to the market and to see which varieties are in high demand. The past two days has been very busy and many exhibitors are already pleased with this year's show. Expectations are that the afternoon won't be as well visited by the professional industry, but that won't affect the positive feeling at the exhibition in general. Hopes are high for this year.

Sebastian Padula of Josarflor.

Besides growers and traders also suppliers are present in Moscow. Anastasia Konarek of Step systems and Gertjan Bosman of EMS presenting the gas analyzer.

The team of Danziger. Their craspedia Paintball attracted the attention of many visitors.

Brothers Britto of EBF Cargo.

FloralDaily
FloralDaily was present at this three-day event to make a full photo report and review the developments in the Russian floral industry through interviews with suppliers, growers and visitors. The photo report will be published on Monday 18 September.