This year has been interesting to say the least. The California Cut Flower Commission has been always looking at ways to increase demand for California Grown flowers and greens and the June campaign has continued to be a great success. I have spoken with a couple of growers that saw growth in June sales surpass last year. That is very promising considering where sales were back in March and April.
by Dave Pruitt, CEO of the California Cut Flower Commission
The work we did to promote Mother’s May helped to push sales up not only for Mother’s Day but during the whole month of May. When June arrived, many growers were continuing to see consistent growth in sales. There was an amount of pent up desire for flowers and as we kept reminding people of the great qualities of fresh cut CA Grown flowers and greens, we felt the demand continue to grow. The super markets were also excited about the June is CA Grown Flowers Month campaign because they saw their flower departments emptied during Mother’s Day and continued to have strong sales the rest of May.
Once flowers were more accessible, sales grew beyond many growers’ expectations and farms found themselves working harder than in the past to supply the market, often due to lack of labor to harvest, package and ship the flowers. I am very proud to be associated with a group of such hard-working farmers. They worked to reopen the markets to make fresh CA Grown Flowers and Greens the gift of choice to brighten friends and loved one’s homes for special occasions.
“We were very appreciative of the support we had from our customers in promoting June as California Grown Flowers Month in their stores this year! The month ended much stronger than anticipated and the busyness brought back a small sense of normalcy we had been longing for the past few months.” – Cagney Miller, Operations Manager of MOBI’s in Carpinteria, CA
All the efforts of our growers to get the word out to customers and keep reminding them about CA Grown flowers and greens for the month of June was a success! This year we had more stores and wholesalers involved than in the past and we truly want to thank each and every one for their support.
For more information:
California Cut Flower Commission
PO Box 90225, Santa Barbara, CA
93190-0225
www.ccfc.org