Moroccan Flower Industry Wilts Amid Pandemic Restrictions

"I’ve been at the store since 9am, but at this hour I haven’t even sold a single rose." These words say it all. They belong to Abdelghani, a flower merchant, reports Al Bayane, after a tour of the flower market located in the hospital district, on Boulevard Zerktouni in Casablanca.

Like several areas of commercial activity, flower merchants are in the doldrums, hard hit by the ban on weddings, baptisms, circumcisions and other festive ceremonies.

"Even couples are no longer in the mood to give each other flowers. In this critical period, they must have other priorities," confirms the flower merchant, adding that "in addition to that, conferences are no longer current in these times of pandemic, while we were doing a bit of business thanks to these events."

With hospital visits being very regulated since the start of the pandemic, patients no longer receive bouquets from their relatives and friends.
"Our prices have been halved to encourage consumers. The large bouquets that cost 500Dhs are now negotiated between 150 and 120 Dhs." "But despite this, the customer is rare," complains Abdelghani, the same source reports.

As a result, in addition to poor sales, there are huge losses, because these are essentially perishable products, to the point that Abdelghani says: "We work for the supplier only. (...). The luckiest lament 1000 Dhs in monthly losses. Others record much higher losses."