Thousands of flowers flown from Colombia to Beijing for showcase

The first Colombian Flower Showcase is held in the Colombian Embassy in Beijing, in which people could see more than 11,000 fresh flowers transported over from Colombia. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/chinadaily.com.cn]

BEIJING - More than 11,000 flowers were flown all the way from Colombia to Beijing on Tuesday, and decorated the Colombian Embassy's backyard.

It's the first Colombian Flower Showcase held in China, after which more flowers from Colombia will show up in the following 18th Hortiflorexpo IPM Beijing held on May 11 to 13.

Dozens of enterprises and representatives from Colombia attended the showcase held at the embassy, aiming to promote Colombian flowers as well as tourism.

"We want China to realize even though we are far away, we have the opportunity to bring flowers, including roses, carnations and chrysanthemums," said Carmenza Jaramillo, Columbian Ambassador to China, adding that the flower industry plays a significant role in the Colombian economy.

Carmenza Jaramillo, Colombian Ambassador to China, says that the flower industry plays a significant role in the Colombian economy and she hopes for more business with Chinese companies. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/chinadaily.com.cn]

Jairo Cadavid, promotion and communications director of Colombian Flower Exporters, is trying to bring Colombian products to China's market. He said that he's happy to see that 1600 species of Colombian flowers officially landed in China because of the event.

Colombia ranks second in the world, only behind the Dutch, in flower production and exports. The amount of Colombian exports reaches more than 100 million dollars each year.

Wang Chuncheng, deputy director of Beijing Expo 2019 coordination bureau, said that Colombian weather contributed to the high quality of Colombian flowers.

"Compared to Chinese roses, Colombian roses are bigger and more expensive," said Wang.

Roses from Colombia are bigger than those from the south of China, but much more expensive, and the price can be more than 20 times that of the domestically produced ones, said Yu Shui, general manager of Zhejiang Ourbloom Technology. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/chinadaily.com.cn]

In recent years, the demand for flowers in the Chinese market has been growing.

Yu Shui, general manager of Zhejiang Ourbloom Technology Co Ltd's, said that the company's revenue has grown to 400 million yuan ($61 million) from 2 million yuan in the past seven years.

Currently, Yu's company mainly cooperates with flower providers from the Netherlands, Ecuador, Sweden and South Korea, and he looks forward to learning more about Colombian flowers but also has his reservations.

"It's still new here, and the only thing I know now is that the price might be high, which won't be very competitive," said Yu.