THE ORGANISATION OF THE MARKET FOR CARNATION FLOWERS

Carnations are the most important cut flower in the EEC countries. A large number of cuttings for flower production, but few cut flowers, enter into international trade. The main countries producing plant material for cut flower growers are Italy, Germany, The Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, France. Nurseries in northern countries have subsidiary areas for production of mother stock in southern countries, mostly bordering the Mediterranean, in order to produce cuttings during the winter and spring.

Some cooperation exists between nurseries for the contractual growing of mother stock material. The non-commercial C.P.A. seeks to protect growers interests, while the B.G.A. and Thomson Co. are commercial organisations, that operate various forms of contractual arrangements for protecting new cultivars, some based on little more than confidence.

The Paris Convention of 1961 would provide the necessary protection for rights of multiplication of mother stock and a 15 year patent. Although five of the EEC countries signed the treaty, it appears to operate only in France and The Netherlands. If monopoly is to be avoided, it is essential that similar legislation be brought into effect in the other countries concerned.

Further, if the distribution of plant material is to be truly competitive, a standard classification for cuttings by quality description must be drawn up and agreed.

During a recent study on the economics of carnation production in the Common Market, we focused attention on the problems of the carnation grower, particularly the grower of carnation cuttings, and the different ways be found of solving them. For this meeting, we thought it would be interesting to look more closely at some of these problems.