No problem for Yuan Shixuan,a wholesaler at the Beijing Flower Supermarket:His small nursery in the suburbs grows up to 50,000 roses a year.
Before dawn each day the roses are cut; by 7 a.m.they have reached the flower market,just behind Beijing's Hard Rock Cafe; by 8 a.m.Mr.Yuan's squadron of flower vendors are ready to fan out across the city,in search of the capital's romantics.
For entrepreneurs like Mr.Yuan,the flower trade has never been better."It's grown from being small to being big," he remarked laconically of his eight-year-old business.
At a neighboring stall,Xu Ping,a bookseller turned florist,thrust herself into the conversation.
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"Business is good," she said,whipping a calling card from her purse."I'm no longer satisfied with just retailing.I've bought a plot of land near the airport,and I need foreign capital to develop it."
Outside the market,a peasant from the suburbs was loading his tricycle with chrysanthemums and roses.
"I used to sell vegetables," he said,"but there's more money in the flower trade."
Just how much money is difficult to estimate,so rapid has been the expansion of the domestic market for cut flowers in the past few years.
According to research published in March by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture,China produced about 400 million pieces of cut flowers in 1993,compared with just 100 million in 1991,and output is certainly even higher today.
During the same period,the output value
As international leaders in the field,the Dutch would like to compete with the Chinese on a level flower bed.
of the cut flower industry doubled,to 3 billion yuan ($358 million)
Roses,carnations,chrysanthemums and gladioli are the biggest sellers in the Chinese market.
The Dutch calculate that about 50 percent of all cut flowers are grown in the Shanghai region,with the southwestern province of Yunnan accounting for a further 15 percent.Yunnan is also China's tobacco center,and the provincial government already sees flowers as the ideal crop substitute if the anti-smoking movement ever hits cigarette sales here.
"I believe when most people stop smoking,Yunnan flowers will be as popular as today's 'Yun' Cigarette," Liu Jing,vice governor of Yunnan,said inApril.Other flower-growing centers in China include the provinces of Sichuan (12 percent),Guangzhou (12 percent) and the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (7 percent).Beijing's output is a mere 2 percent,due to the colder northern winter.
DUTCH interest in the booming Chinese flower trade is no coincidence.As international leaders in this market,the Dutch would like to compete in China on a level flower bed.
At present cut flower exports to China carry a 70 percent import tax,including the cost of transport,plus a value-added tax of 17 percent.
That makes a Dutch tulip three to four times as expensive as the home-grown variety.
Not that a Chinese tulip is necessarily native.The Dutch are worried about floral piracy in China,in which unscrupulous growers import a few sample bulbs and develop clones for mass production.
For overseas flower companies already doing business in China,however,the potential rewards are considerable.
Melrose Plants & Flowers,a British company that has a joint venture in the southern city of Xiamen,anticipates a total sales income from cut flowers this year of 1 million yuan.
Roses are the biggest seller,and between this summer and next February the company aims to cut 3,000 individual pieces per day."At the moment we can't keep up with demand," said Tom Whitten,chairman of the joint venture.Sales on Valentine's Day were 'massive,' according to one seller,even though the holiday was unknown in China only a few years ago.
In the era of reform and opening-up,China's florists have been quick to learn the marketing ploys of their Western counterparts.
Valentine's Day sales are "massive,"Mr.Whitten said,even though the holiday was unknown in China a few years ago.
So great was demand in Beijing this year that on Feb.14,fleets of taxi-vans were hired to go to the airport and collect the planeloads of fresh roses that had been freighted in overnight from the south.With the price of a Valentine's rose pegged as high as 10 yuan,Beijing's flower-sellers easily cleared their overheads.
At the corporate end of the market,flowers have become an essential feature at shop and office openings.
A new shop-owner wanting to make a bigger splash than his rivals will take no chances.Typically,he will contact a group of friends and ask them to send a congratulatory floral basket on the big day.