Yucatan poinsettias production lags as demand soars

There is only one producer left in Yucatan that supplies the Merida market with 10,000 poinsettias…

MERIDA – The Yucatan Peninsula demands 80,000 poinsettias (Flores de Noche Buena, “Christmas Eve Flowers”) for the Christmas season. The Yucatecan grower Fernando Poblano Canto produces 10 thousand plants to supply companies, hotels and the general public in the Yucatan capital, as other producers have already left the business due to lack of government support, despite the fact that floriculture is one of the most remunerated economic activities.

The entrepreneur said that last year, with the support of six groups of producers, they managed to generate 30,000 native Poinsettias in Yucatan.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa), this season 20.5 million Christmas Eve plants will be sold nationwide, with an approximate value of $720 million pesos.

The flower of Christmas Eve is cultivated in its great majority in greenhouses, activity that generates 3,200 direct jobs and around  9,600 indirect, mainly in four states of the center of the country. This includes around eight thousand producers of Christmas Eve plants concentrated in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Michoacán, as well in Mexico City.

He said that on a large scale it is planned to export 140 tons of bulbs and cuttings to the United States (58 tons), Spain (38 tons), Japan (20 tons), Holland (seven tons) and other countries (18 tons).

Mexico occupies the fourth place worldwide in cultivated area, with around 300 hectares of potted Poinsettias.

The total production of Christmas Eve is for national consumption. 90 percent of production and consumption is red; five percent are white or yellow and the rest are pink or marbled. As a product of the genetic modification to the flower, speckles are also sold on the market, sprinkled in red and white.

This flower is an important part of the Mexican culture and is currently the main ornament in the United States, being bought from Thanksgiving until the New Year.

According to Poblano Canto, it is a pity that this business opportunity is wasted, since cultivating the Poinsettia is simple and has guaranteed sales.

Source: www.laverdadnoticias.com