Activity employs, on the average, twice more workers than the national agriculture, prevails in properties with less than 10 hectares and has a great exporting potential.

The IBGE is publishing a new survey about the production of flowers and ornamental plants in Brazil. The information, based on the 1995-1996 Census of Agriculture, was organized in tables, graphs and specific analysis regarding this agricultural segment, whose potentialities were not entirely investigated. The study detected 7,561 properties, rentings, partnerships or rural invasions that between August 1995 and July 1996 gained R$311.12 millions from which R$ 188.11 millions were originated from the production of flowers and ornamental plants. This production occupied 434,935 hectares of total area.

The 4,631,404 rural establishments that were studied are classified according to the area; the condition of the producer (owner, renter, partner or occupier); the inputs that were used; revenues; expenditures; investments; labor force; etc. These data are also available in the CD-ROM that comes along with the publication.

The study detected 2,963 rural establishments – totaling 72,488 hectares – in which the main activity was the production of flowers and ornamental plants. Among the rural establishments, the small properties prevailed: the majority (1,941) had less than ten hectares; 916 had between ten and less than one hundred hectares and only 8 had between one thousand and less than ten thousand hectares (table in page 2).

These 2,963 establishments employed 21,844 persons. The smallest properties employed more persons: 10.014 persons worked in properties with less than ten hectares and 10,430 in those between ten and one hundred hectares. On the average, 7.4 persons were working by establishment, twice the average observed in the whole Brazilian agriculture, that is 3.7 persons. The study of the IBGE classifies the occupied personnel as: older and younger than 14 years old; responsible and non-paid members of the families; permanent and temporary employees; partners or non-partners; and residents in the establishments.

Although it has been a focus of interest of incentive programs, the sector still doesn’t have homogeneous information obtained scientifically in a national level and in a systematic way. The study of the IBGE aims at filling this gap and confirming the necessity of a constant observation of the segment.

The climatic diversity and the beauty of the Brazilian flora as well as the strategic position of the Country in relation to the international market contribute to give to this agricultural activity a great potential of increase, with relatively low expenses, mainly in relation to other producing countries.

In 1997, the productive chain of flowers and ornamental plants summed around US$ 1 billion in Brazil. Nevertheless, in 2002, its exports amounted to US$ 14.9 millions, or less than 5% of the Brazilian production in the period, estimated in US$ 350 millions. Colombia, for example, exports annually US$ 550 millions to the EUA, due to the subvention programs of the American government, willing to encourage the substitution of cultures related to the drug traffic.

The development of the culture of flowers in Brazil had an important moment with the upbringing, in 1950, of the Agriculture Co-operative of Holambra that, in 1988, began a courageous program of re-structuring . This enterprise happened precisely when the Netherlands, main world producer of flowers, was facing discussions of environmentalists from Germany, and helped to fortify markets in foreign countries.

In 1993, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Provision established the FRUPEX, a program that is based in the well-succeeded experience of the irrigated flower culture in the Northeast Region. It removed the main obstacles regarding the exports of Brazilian ornamental plants, fruits and flowers. In 1994, the IBRAFLOR (Instituto Brasileiro de Floricultura) was created, a non-governmental organization composed of representatives of the diverse segments of the culture of flowers (instruction, survey, extent, production, wholesale, retail and landscaping).