There is more than one reason to smile come Valentine’s Day in Ethiopia. The young delight in exchanging cards and red roses on February 14th, a practice unheard of in the years before the floriculture industry took off in 2005; evidence that even traditions respond to globalization. As for flower farmers, Valentine’s Day provides a welcome financial boost as the 2 million stems flown to Europe each and every day in the first two weeks of the month increase overall sales by around 50%. However, concerns are being voiced about the possible exploitation of land and labourers - the fundamental roots of this fast growing industry, without which there can be no future.
Arid plains and barren landscapes have for a long time shaped the image of Ethiopia, evocative of the famine that gripped the country in the mid eighties causing a devastating loss of a million lives. Yet today, bright blooms of roses, carnations, shrubs, summer flowers and trees blanket large swathes of Oromia region, protected under the glass sheets of large green houses. The country experienced 11.1% economic growth in 2008, with flower exports generating $150 million, double the amount earned by the industry just twelve months earlier. The 1000 hectares currently awash with vibrant floral colours is set to treble by the end of 2009. The sector currently employs around 60,000 workers, 70% of whom are women. But if all those whose entrepreneurial instincts have been unleashed to accommodate, feed, water, clothe, entertain and transport the workers in the towns surrounding the farms are included, this number jumps to more than 80,000.
One such boomtown is Zeway in Oromia, which in 2005 had a population of 50,000 and an unemployment rate of 50%. That was the year that Sher Ethiopia, today the country’s largest flower farm, first took root. Zeway has since come alive. Today the town bustles with energy. Shops and cafes have sprung up, roads have been built and profits made. Sher itself employs around 8000 workers, but has channelled a substantial proportion of their profits into community schemes. A new stadium hosted its first football match in December 2008 and the shrieks and squeals of more than 2000 students fill the playground of a new primary school. Both were financed by Sher Ethiopia. The town’s first hospital, opened in December 2007 was also built by the flower farm to ensure its workers had adequate and affordable access to healthcare. It has since opened its doors to the wider community too. The farm is on its way to acquiring the internationally respected Socially Qualified Certificate from the Dutch organization, MPS, which acts as proof that employees enjoy good working conditions and that the farms fulfil specific criteria on health, safety and terms of employment, based on International Labour Organization requirements.
However, not all of Ethiopia’ farms hold such standards in high regard. Concerns have been raised over the working conditions of farm employees elsewhere in Ethiopia. For eight hours each day, workers toil in temperatures that touch 40 degrees Celsius. A single day-off each fortnight is the only respite. Workers earn around a dollar a day, much less than the price of a single stem bought in the streets of Amsterdam on Valentine’s Day.
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