Bloomberg - California Lawmakers Back Flower Growers' Push for Transport Hub

California's U.S. senators and more than half of its congressional delegation backed a request from the state's flower growers for $15 million to build a transport hub that would help counter Colombian competition.

The Obama administration should include the creation of a flower distribution center in the bill for a free-trade agreement with Colombia, the top source of imported cut flowers sold in the U.S., the lawmakers said in a July 14 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The letter was signed by Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and 29 of the state's 53 representatives, including Republican Darrell Issa and Democrat Mike Thompson.

Hauling California irises, lilies and tulips from one central site would fill large trucks more efficiently, reducing growers' costs by 20 percent to 40 percent, according to the California Cut Flower Commission.

Such a cooperative shipping system “is the only chance this workforce of over 10,000 has to stay alive,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

California flower growers have lost $89 million since 1991, when a trade-preferences program gave Colombian roses duty-free access to the U.S., the lawmakers said. The state accounts for three-quarters of U.S. cut-flower production.

The U.S. is the principal market for Colombian fresh-cut flowers, accounting for 81 percent of the $727 million in stems Colombia exported in 2005, according to a report from the U.S. International Trade Commission completed in December 2006. U.S. domestic growers account for less than 20 percent of the flower market compared with 64 percent in 1993, according to the commission.

Ratification Lag

President Barack Obama reworked the free-trade pact with Colombia signed in 2006 under his predecessor, George W. Bush, in response to Democratic concerns that the South American nation wasn't doing enough to protect worker rights.

The administration has been pushing to get that deal and agreements with South Korea and Panama approved by Congress before an August recess.

American producers of wheat, pork and corn say they support free trade with Colombia, and say the lack of ratification has helped competitors in Argentina, Brazil and Canada. The trade pact would boost U.S. exports to Colombia by as much as $1.1 billion a year, according to the trade commission.

Colombia's flowers rank fifth in the country's exports to the U.S., after oil, minerals, gold and coffee, according to Commerce Department data.