Everyone is looking for a little bit of colour to brighten their days and their homes as the coronavirus lockdown drags on for another week and the weather stays miserable. This means that demand for tulips - or any flowers really - has increased significantly. The bad news is that the aforementioned dreary weather and a lack of stock have caused prices for tulips to skyrocket.
Last year, the coronavirus pandemic led to a drop in demand for flowers, which meant farmers across the Netherlands suffered extensive losses. As a result, around 400 fewer hectares were planted for this season, resulting in a loss of approximately 200 million tulips.
In addition to this, a wet winter and cold spring have provided sub-optimal conditions for growing, so the harvest has been delayed. “Normally the flowers are removed on May 6 so that the bulb can grow again. We haven't even started yet,” explains Arjan Smit from the tulip farmers' collective TPM.
These factors have had a significant impact on the cost of tulips. “Normally, one tulip costs 0,14 euros, now it is 0,23 euros in free trade,” Smit says. Royal FloraHolland confirms that tulips are currently achieving “good prices.”
What does this mean for you, though? Luckily, the tulips you’re finding in supermarkets this spring were purchased under contract last year, so you can still benefit from last year’s so-called coronavirus prices. The bad news is that this year’s price hike will have an impact on sales of next year’s crop, so get ready to fork over more money for a bunch of tulips in the future.