AS THE nation prepares to fork out millions of pounds on flowers for Valentine’s Day, consumers are being asked to think hard about what part of the world the blooms in their bouquet come from.

Many shoppers are already conscious of “food miles” when it comes to buying strawberries from Florida during the winter, but campaigners say that people do not think about the distances involved — and the effect on the environment — in bringing blooms to Britain. Yet millions of roses and carnations arrive each year from Colombia, a distance of more than 5,000 miles, and Kenya (more than 4,000 miles), which are then packed with green leaves from Costa Rica or Israel.

Millions of chrysanthemums, tulips, freesias and irises also come from the Netherlands — only 221 miles away, but still too far for campaigners who want them to be grown in Britain. They also want compulsory country-of-origin labelling on mixed bouquets and bunches.

The market for cut flowers and bedding plants is worth £1.5 billion a year in Britain — £40 million for Valentine’s Day alone — an increase of one third since 2000. This is thanks largely to supermarkets, which have made flowers an affordable luxury.

Norman Baker, environmental spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, has begun to draw attention to the perils of “flower miles” after learning from official statistics that from 2001-04 the volume of cut flowers from Kenya alone had increased from 10,000 tonnes to nearly 17,000 tonnes. In 2004 importing Kenyan flowers produced more than 30,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Similar figures for every country have not been collated by the Government or the horticultural industry. But the impact of flower miles on climate change is thought to be huge.

Mr Baker said: “When people buy flowers they don’t think they might be contributing to carbon dioxide emissions. In a free market we can’t stop the flowers coming in, but there should be labelling of flowers with the country of origin and a role in educating the public to recognise the problems and to respond to it. I want consumers to choose flowers that cause minimum damage to the environment.”

Mr Baker also called for growers in Britain to supply more flowers to the domestic market.

Jim Floor, managing director of World Flowers of Hook and Basingstoke, which makes up a million mixed bouquets per week for the main supermarkets, said that costs were too high for growers. “Energy costs for growers have trebled in the past year and we are having to spend three times as much on gas and electricity for lighting as our rivals in the Netherlands, where the industry is subsidised.”

The campaign to persuade consumers to think “flower miles” has already won the backing of Friends of the Earth. Vicki Hird, a senior campaigner for the organisation, said: “The growth of cut flowers from abroad is a seriously worrying trend, and there is just too much at stake in terms of climate change and other environmental problems to allow it to continue to grow.

“We would be in favour of country-of-origin labelling on flowers and a proper costing of the environmental impacts. The Government should step in because it is getting out of control.”

The British Retail Consortium, which represents leading supermarkets, was also keen to play a part in highlighting the issue of flower miles. A spokeswoman said that while there was no legal requirement to do so many companies were already putting labels on flowers. “If there was sufficient demand from some customers for more detailed information, retailers would consider this.”

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