Ethiopia: Cut flower Bonanza: At What Cost?
Published 02/18/2008 - 3:18 p.m.
By Tamiru L. Obole | Jimma Times
Jimma Times - Pro Goverment "private" website - Nearly 60 flower farms operate in Ethiopia today. More than half of them are owned and run by foreigners. During his recent statement to the media, Minister Girma Birru pledges nearly 2000 hectares of land to attract new investors to the industry. But with local and international bodies’ concerns for environmental mismanagement and labor abuses, their time may be running out.
Teenager Aster Mamo doesn’t go to college to attend science or art class. She has to be on time for her daily routine job at the local flower farm where she earns money to help her family survive.
9:00 am in the morning. A heavy rain last night left huge piles of hail inside the compound of Menagesha Flower Farm, situated 30 kilometers west of Addis. Today’s cloudy sky has brought chilly weather. A gentle breeze carries not the sweet scent of roses, but a strong smell of chemicals that makes you want to sneeze. A track up the hill runs through a beautiful green field and a clump of indigenous trees. At the end of the track, there are eight huge greenhouses.
Blossoms of all kinds welcome you to the greenhouses. But the inside temperature is in stark contrast with the outside – it’s really hot. Gurgling water noises from little water pumps add to the steamy mood. About ten female workers are engaged in collecting flowers and removing extra foliage from the stems of red roses.
Meseret Negash, 19, an innocent looking girl, is one of them. Born into a family of eight, she grew up in the suburb of Menagesha town. She attended the local school until grade three. “I couldn’t go further since my father was unable to support me,” Mesert says. “He works on a small piece of land and has to feed ten mouths.”
Meseret couldn’t exactly remember when she joined Menagesha Flower. “I started working here about a year ago,” she said, removing leaves from a stem of red rose. Meseret follows a single day-to-day pattern: removing leaves, cutting stems, transporting them to the ‘cold room’ and cleaning greenhouses. “It’s a back-breaking job but I earn some money to help my family,” she says.
Meseret works eight hours a day and 28 days a month. The nation’s labor law allows up to 48 hours a week. Meseret works eight extra hours in a fortnight; only one day off.No overtime payments. “I recently received a salary rise of one Birr; now I’m paid eight Birr a day. I would be happier if this amount went up to nine or ten,” Meseret says smiling. “This amount will enable me to go to evening class.” She has a dream of going back to school soon. However, she doesn’t know how long her boss will allow her to stay with her casual job on the farm. She didn’t sign any written agreement with her employer. Nor is there any labor union that can bargain for better payments and other benefits. “We don’t have what you called a labor union because we don’t know how it could be useful to us.”
You may wonder how Meseret can remove leaves from thorny rose stems without wearing gloves. She carries cut flowers to the cold room and cleans the greenhouses without wearing protective devices. “I’m used to these smells and thorny stems,” says Meseret. “We sometimes face a strong chemical smell; if we complain we‘re told to work in the next greenhouse.”
Ethiopia’s burgeoning flower industry developed out of the European flower market, which began in the northern hemisphere, and expanded rapidly at the end of 20th century into the southern Africa, until by 2000, one third of traded cut flowers was grown in southern areas, mainly East and South Africa. Ethiopia has now also become one of the places where the industry is booming.
Environmental impact
Today, like Menagesha Flower, fifty-seven other flower farms operate in Ethiopia. Most of them began growing flowers in 2000. These farms are believed to have created job opportunities for thousands of rural Ethiopians.
Moreover, the government has given due attention to the flower industry because of growing revenue it collects from export taxes. However, the industry has brought with it much controversy: allegations of environmental mismanagement, labor abuse and unfair land holding.
The industry uses pesticides and chemical fertilizers. It uses too much of these elements which damages the environment, environmentalists accuse. It’s also accused of using a lot of water. They worry that flower farms let too much inorganic fertilizer into soil so that the soil develops salinity. Saline soil will not grow plants. Moreover, too much chemicals kill useful organisms in the soil. And if too much pesticide gets into water bodies it damages the biodiversity. Moreover, too much use of water leads to conflict with the local community, as was the case in the Naivasha district in Kenya. It may also lead to depletion of water from its natural reservoir.
Ato Seyoum Fenja, an agronomist at Menagesha Flower, says: “We grow flowers on substrate or red ash so that pesticides and inorganic fertilizers cannot get into the soil.” As for water sources, says Seyoum, “We use well-water.” Twenty litres of pesticides and 96,000-210,000 litres of water are being consumed at Menagesha Flower daily. Regarding chemical use, Ato Dawit Araya, Manager of Menagesha Flower, says: “We watch international codes of conduct since we wish to sell our flowers for good prices.” Some international organizations grade flowers based on their effort to minimize environmental impacts. Grade A awards us a better price than grade C, says Dawit.
Ethiopia belongs to Ethiopians; we came here not to destroy your environment, but to develop it, says Mrs. Anat Harari Degani, the Managing Director and Owner of Jericho Flowers. She admitted that Eucalyptus trees were removed but “not a single indigenous tree”.
Regarding chemical use, Degani says “we abide by international rules and regulations: protecting environment against damages, protecting standard working conditions and welfare of workers, and minimizing the use of chemicals. We cannot sell for good price if we don’t meet the standard. We have a certificate of quality management.” In Jericho Flowers, flowers are grown on natural soil. Fertilizers drain into the natural soil in a solution form. “A farmer near Nazareth grows teff using fertilizers; ours is not different,” says Degani.
Research reports on the environmental impact of the flower industry haven’t been conducted yet, according to Ato Sisay Habte, Executive Secretary of Ethiopian Horticulture Producers and Exporters Association (EHPEA). “And it’s too early to feel the damage it can cause to the environment; we are in a better position to learn its impact from Kenya and other experienced nations,” he says. “Every project where man is involved has environmental impact; I don’t know why some groups exaggerate the case of the flower industry.”
Sisay admits that many flower farms do not use red ash to grow flowers, probably because of its high cost. However, the association encourages the use of red ash, biological pest control and organic fertilizers. “As we are beginners, we lack skill and knowledge,” says Sisay. “But trainings and codes of practice are underway by the association: issues of production, labor, environment and community have been given priority so as to use them as minimum requirements for certification to begin and run a flower farm.”
Waste disposal mechanisms have also become a controversial issue. “Unless waste materials are handled and removed properly, they can get into water bodies or be used by people and cause serious damage,” says Abraham Haile Melekot, an Expert at Environmental Impact Assessment Unit at Environmental Protection Authority. “Empty pesticide and fertilizer containers should be buried sealed up with plastic while waste water has to be treated at the farm.”
“As for the Ethiopian Environmental Protection Authority, nobody has contacted us so far. They were supposed to collect empty chemical containers and waste flowers,” says Degani. “We have kept the containers in storage whereas we bury the flowers.” Degani worries particularly about the empty chemical containers.
At Menagesha Flower, Seyoum says, empty pesticide and fertilizer containers are buried, but neither sealed nor in lined up spaces. Organic wastes like foliages are composted and reused on the farm to grow indigenous trees. With regard to water source, Dawit says “We have a plan to recycle waste water and start rain water harvesting.”
According to the national environment guideline, says Abraham, companies are expected to have completed environmental impact assessments before launching their projects. As for the flower industry, “We don’t have any idea where and how environmental impact assessments are conducted.” The authority recently conducted a survey on the environmental and occupational health and safety. “But the results have not been disclosed due to reasons I don’t want to mention,” says Abraham.
Labor issues
The cut flower industry employs thousands of workers globally. It has also contributed to foreign exchange earning, rural stability and social services. But the present global trend indicates workers are denied of their basic rights. In Ethiopia none of the flower farms are unionized. They are not allowed to form labour unions, exercise collective bargaining agreements and ask for safe and healthy working conditions. Human rights activists argue that flower growers use an illiterate, underpaid work force. And the workers are bare-armed, with no gloves or face masks to protect themselves from pesticides and thorny rose stems.
Workers develop health problems as a result of being exposed to dangerous chemicals and working conditions on the job. Workers are forced to work long hours, can be dismissed at will and often handle dangerous chemicals without the proper protective equipment. Women workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, sexual harassment, no maternity leave, overcrowded housing and low wages.
Mamush Kebede, 24, came from Ankober, Amhara region. Before leaving his casual job, he worked as a sprayer on a flower farm near Menagesh for two months. “With five of my friends we asked our boss for a salary rise (8 to 10 Birr) but we were told to serve for another six months,” says Mamush. “Meantime I asked him to transfer me to another unit because I got rashes from the chemicals that I spray; I was told to continue work&s