By BOB KOSLOW, Business writer January 20, 2011 12:05 AM
At the Fern Trust in Seville on Tuesday, Leti Aparran cuts fern destined for flower arrangements. (N-J | David Massey)
“I even posted a page of it on Facebook so our customers know why the prices are going up,” said Register, executive vice president of Fern Trust Inc.
His Facebook time was limited this week, though, with the start of the busy fern cutting, packing and shipping season that runs through mid-April.
Fern supplies should be fine for Valentine’s Day, as they survived with December’s freeze protection efforts. However, Easter supplies may be short as the young ferns that would be ready in March were heavily damaged, Register said. Mother’s Day supplies are still uncertain and depend on the weather and the growth of the current young fern stems.
With fern demand expected to rise this year, growers face a decision. Do they heavily cut fields now to meet demand and risk further stressing the fields and lowering future production, or supply less now in order to have healthier yields the rest of the year?
The first quarter of the year can account for up to half a grower’s annual income. Yields in 2010 were down 10, 15, 20 percent or higher in some ferneries, Register said, depending on how well fields were managed and protected.
“It’s the worst I can remember,” he said.
The worldwide economic downturn that reduced spending on discretionary items, such as flowers, increased competition from overseas fern production and changing floral trends all contributed to several consecutive down years for local fern growers. Volusia ferneries are also just now reaching a balance between years of high leatherleaf supplies and declining demand, both of which lowered prices.
“We’ve seen leatherleaf drop in sales 56 percent from 1990 to 2009,” Stamps said. “At the same time, we’ve seen sales of other cut foliage grow 22 percent, but not enough to offset the drop in leatherleaf.”
Leatherleaf once represented 70 to 80 percent of fern sales after it came to dominate the floral industry in the 1960s because of its long life after cutting. Now it’s about 50 percent, Register said.
Last year began with 17 January nights of freezing temperatures in Northwest Volusia County, including two stretches of five consecutive nights each in the heart of fern country. The year ended with 17 freezing December nights along with seven so far this January.
Each freezing night costs money as diesel-fueled water pumps run so a thin layer of water can make ice over saran shade covers and the plants for freeze protection.
Sandwiched between the freezes was a hot, dry summer, again costing money to irrigate the ferns, but also increasing problems with plant diseases and soil nutrients.
“Add them all up and it’s pretty significant,” said Register, a fifth-generation farmer whose family members also own ferneries along with cattle and hay operations.
The efforts are made to protect thin margins in Volusia’s cut foliage industry that brings in between $80 to $100 million in annual sales. More than 2,851 Volusia acres are dedicated to the cut foliage industry, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That’s more than any other county in the state, which accounts for 74 percent of the cut foliage in the nation, including 98 percent of the popular leatherleaf ferns, said Bob Stamps, a fern expert with the University of Florida’s Mid-Florida research and education center in Apopka.
Lately, the fern growers have been losing.
Last winter’s freezes killed millions of dollars worth of plants, but demand was down due to the economic recession, so growers could not take advantage by raising prices.
The heavy cold also stressed fields which reduced spring and summer growth, putting growers behind entering the fall when crops are “banked,” or held in the field until the heavy cutting season begins in mid-January for Valentine’s Day.
“Some fields just never recovered and 2010 was not a bumper crop,” Davis said.
Tough times have cut the number of local fern growers/shippers from 400 to about 60 or 80, Register said. The top eight do about 80 percent of the business.
Despite the recent down period, Register said 2011 could be a good year.
The economy is on an upswing, Valentine’s Day is on a Monday and not a weekend when flower sales are usually slower and fern supplies are down, which should help increase prices for the growers.
“You have to know what makes you money and what does not make you money and stop doing what is not making money even though your grandfather and great-grandfather used to do it that way,” Register said. “That’s hard to do in communities where traditions have been around a long time and are hard to change. But you have to survive and we plan to be here a long time.”
