FLOWER wholesaler and exporter Adrian Parsons has a whole lot more respect for farmers and their production issues.
Because he has recently become one himself.
Mr Parsons and co-owner, Craig Musson, bought a 28-ha farm at Longford, near Sale, in March 2010 to shore up supply for their flower company WAFEX.
The company sells mainly native and wildflowers locally and overseas and sources fresh flowers from major production areas all over Australia.
"We had concerns over our long-term supply base," Mr Parsons said. "Our growers were not expanding or investing and (they are) getting older."
Although Mr Parsons has been involved with fresh flower sales and marketing since 1987, this is the first time he has had a role in production and it has been an eye-opening experience.
"We have learnt a lot about production costs and harvesting systems," he said.
Mr Parsons said the cut-flower market was cost competitive, especially when selling to supermarkets, which had increased their market share in the past five years
"Our strength is in logistics, marketing and distribution and we have been able to apply these to a farm environment," he said.
The Gippsland farm previously produced flowers, but major upgrades have been made to the existing plantings and irrigation system, and there have been changes to soil nutrition to bring it up to standard.
They have put in 10,000 new plants, to be followed by another 15,000 this year, including waxflower, serruria, erica, boronia and flannel flower.
One of the reasons for the new plantings was to extend the production season, which traditionally runs from May to December.
Another benefit of owning a farm, which employs a full-time manager and five casual employees, is they can experiment with new varieties.
This includes waxflower varieties bred by Helix, another company owned by Mr Parsons and Mr Musson.
