Thorny Issues: Reading File 14

Reading file 14
Background
Thorny issues
On Valentine’s day, you may give or be However, the majority of flowers go to
given a bunch of red roses. But have you Alasmeer market, the biggest flower
ever considered how they got to you? It is market in the world, just outside
a remarkable process, for most of the roses Amsterdam. It has one million square
in high street florists or supermarkets metres of warehouse space and up to
in the UK have travelled hundreds, if not twenty million flowers a day are sold
thousands, of miles. The world’s number there. Six thousand producers send their
one producer of roses for Britain is flowers to Amsterdam from all over the
currently Kenya with around a quarter of world. Wholesalers bid for them: prices
the overall UK flower market. Israel and start high and then are lowered – the
Colombia each have about 16%. classic Dutch auction. Thousands of
Kenya is able to exploit a comparative transactions take place in a short space
advantage for flower growing. Most of of time. Wholesalers buy them then re-
the flower farms are in the Rift Valley that export them to other markets across the
supplies the water. It has an ideal climate globe. They are rushed to the UK by plane
and lots of cheap labour. In 2008 it had or in refrigerated trucks and are delivered
€300 million worth of flower exports, to florists.
just under 10% of the country’s export We may all ask ourselves what this means
income. It directly employs around ten for the environment and the carbon
thousand people and feeds ten times that footprint that is involved in transporting
number. Even though the climate is ideal, flowers such large distances. Surprisingly,
most flowers are produced in greenhouses research carried out by Cranfield
to protect them from the occasional University discovered that roses grown by
hailstorm or from becoming wet before the Dutch had a carbon footprint six times
they are harvested. Wet flowers rot higher than those produced in Kenya.
quickly, so they need to be picked while This is because vast amounts of energy
the blooms are dry. Having them indoors are used to provide the heat and light
also facilitates spraying and pest control. that roses need. This is free and plentiful
Picking them at the right time is crucial in Kenya, but has to be provided by other
and flower growers have to know how to means in Holland.
manipulate flowering time. But there is one caveat to this apparent
Once the flowers are picked it is a race success story. Despite the industry being
against time. They are boxed without a money earner for Kenya and providing
water and cooled to keep them as fresh as much-needed employment for the
possible. They are taken from the farms population, conditions on the farms are
to the hub at Nairobi. Some big Kenyan far from rosy. Wages are extremely low, as
flower producers prefer to sell directly to little as 10 pence an hour, and the mainly
their main markets. Roses are sent direct female workforce has little job security. For
to Miami to be distributed to other sites in this reason, the industry has been targeted
the US. The Kenyan operation tries to add by the Fairtrade Foundation in a bid to
value by preparing the roses in cellophane improve workers’ terms and conditions.
and barcoding them so that they can Now, many outlets stock Fairtrade flowers
go straight to the retail outlet. They can from Kenya, but there is a long way to go
be almost anywhere in the US within 48 to improve workers’ conditions throughout
hours of being cut. the Kenyan flower industry.
© Oxford University Press 2010 Business Result Intermediate

Reading file 14
Exercises
1 Work with a partner and answer these questions.
1 How often do you buy or receive cut flowers as a gift? What are the occasions?
2 What are the most popular flowers in your country? What is the etiquette
about giving them?
3 As far as you know, where do the flowers you buy or are given come from?
2 Read an article from a British newspaper about Valentine’s Day roses and
create a flow chart from when they are picked to when they reach the
customer in the UK.
3 Read the text again and answer the questions.

1 What makes Kenya an ideal place to grow roses?
2 How important is the flower export industry to Kenya?
3 Why are roses grown in greenhouses?
4 Where are the two main destinations for the roses?
5 What is special about the Alasmeer flower market, and the way the flowers
are sold?
6 What is surprising about the carbon footprints of Dutch roses and Kenyan
roses?
7 What is the negative side of the rose-growing business in Kenya?
8 How is this being addressed?
4 Match 1–8 to a–h to make collocations from the text.

1 retail a value
2 cheap b space
3 job c advantage
4 carbon d earner
5 comparative e footprint
6 add f security
7 warehouse g outlet
8 money h labour
5 Using the text to help you, decide what the collocations in 4 mean.
6 Work with a partner. What do you think the three following expressions
mean?
1 a thorny issue
2 It is a race against time.
3 Conditions are far from rosy.
7 Look back at the text and choose three words that you could use in your
day-to-day work.
8 Work in pairs or groups and discuss these questions.

1 After reading the article, would you think twice about buying roses from
Kenya?
2 How important is it that people in producing countries receive more for their
labour? Who do you think makes the profits?
3 What would happen if people boycotted Kenyan flowers?
4 Buying cut flowers adds to mankind’s carbon footprint. Do you think we should
offer carbon neutral gifts?
© Oxford University Press 2010 Business Result Intermediate

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Reading file 14

© Oxford University Press 2010 Business Result Intermediate

3 Read the text again and answer the questions.

4 Match 1–8 to a–h to make collocations from the text.

8 Work in pairs or groups and discuss these questions.

© Oxford University Press 2010 Business Result Intermediate

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