After receiving feedback from importers, the Floral Marketing Funding Initiative has decided to "suspend its activities" until after next Valentine's Day, according to Charles Kremp, the group's president, and Red Kennicott, AAF, the Initiative chairman.

The decision to postpone the group's efforts came after industry members, including John Amaya, president of Dole Fresh Flowers in Miami and chairman of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida, pointed out that outside issues, including the Free Trade Agreement, ATPDEA, instability of oil prices, and the devaluation of the dollar against the peso, need to be resolved before importers can lend support to the Initiative progress, Kremp and Kennicott say.

"Although I am very disappointed that we cannot continue at this time, it is important to be sensitive to the issues facing the importers and wait until the environment is more conducive to having a positive vote," Kennicott says.

Kremp agrees, adding that, if the importer issues were not in play, efforts would likely have moved forward as scheduled. "A few years ago, when the Initiative efforts first began, the importer community supported marketing more because, financially, they could take that leap of faith," he says. "Right now, all of these issues have eaten into their margins. There just isn't much of a cushion."

Kennicott adds: "I think [in the past year] we came to a promotion order in terms that could be supported and would have a real good chance of passing a referendum ...  [now,] because of the really serious issues, there's so much uncertainty, we thought the climate would be better in a few months, maybe a year, to restart the effort." 

Still, Kremp and Kennicott remain optimistic that the Initiative will move forward. 

"The goal of the Initiative was to find a way," Kremp says. "That has been accomplished. The next step is to gain industry acceptance. We have seen significant support grow on the domestic producer side and now need to wait for the importer position to improve so they too will embrace what is being proposed."

Once the industry approves the effort, Kremp estimates an order could be implemented in about a year.  "The groundwork is finished," he says, adding that industry members may contact him if they'd like additional information, charles@kremp.com.

See additional background information on the Initiative from previous issues of E-Brief. 

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

   

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