Flower shops hope to sell 7 million roses on Sant Jordi 

The Central Flower Market in Barcelona (Mercabarna-flor) predicts the sale of seven million roses on Sant Jordi day, 20% more than last year.

A vast majority of those flowers will come from other countries, such as Colombia, Ecuador and the Netherlands. A minority of 50,000 roses are produced in Catalonia.

“It is not profitable” to produce the volume of roses that Sant Jordi demands. “Well equipped infrastructure is needed and that costs a lot of money,” the president of the Central Flower Market Wholesale Guild, Miquel Batlle, said during a press conference on Wednesday.

This year might be the last Sant Jordi with locally produced roses, due to a lack of “generational  continuity,” Batlle said.

“There is land to cultivate, but there are no people to do it,” Battle explained, with young people less likely to enter the profession

Sant Jordi sales

The commercialization of roses will grow with this year’s celebrations – 2.3 million roses will be sold by the flower market.

According to Barcelona City Council member Jordi Valls, 30% of yearly flower sales happen on Sant Jordi. He also specified that around 5,400 licenses have been distributed to sell roses and books in the Catalan capital.

Even though Sant Jordi falls on a weekday, florists have high expectations.

“This year, Sant Jordi is on a Tuesday, so special people will give roses to their coworkers and schools set up stalls to sell flowers. Therefore, this year we have higher expectations than last year for the number of roses sold,” florist Rubén Ruíz told Catalan News.

The price of roses might “increase a little” because “there have been some problems in Ecuador due to a climatological issue”, Battle said, causing the production of roses to drop 20% in the South American country. The loss will be compensated by the production of Colombian roses.

The price of roses “starts at four euros,” although there can be “added value” that the florist wants to give to their product, Battle added.