Coronavirus forces Russian florists to destroy millions of roses as demand wilts

Russia's rose growers are destroying a million flowers a day after a coronavirus-induced slump in sales, with fears of worse to come as self-isolation measures take hold across the country.

With non-essential shops ordered to shut, florists are among many businesses fighting for survival and have turned to online sales in an attempt to recoup some of their lost revenue.

There is no room for excess inventory in such an environment.

In a country where flowers are so popular that some florists operate 24 hours a day, 1.2 million roses are being destroyed daily, the Russian Greenhouse Union said.

"Everyone has tears in their eyes that they have to be thrown away: they were all grown, they're all alive," Yulia Charyshkina, director and owner of the Podosinka greenhouse complex, told Reuters.

President Vladimir Putin said in late March that Russia would embark on a special non-working period to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus and people should work from home if they could.

The move, which forced most businesses to shut except those deemed essential, has stopped many firms from working and squeezed profits as most consumers sit out the coronavirus outbreak at home.

Charyshkina said orders for her company's flowers dived to 5,000 from 50,000 the day after Putin's address. Orders had sometimes fallen to as low as 1,000 a day, she said, forcing the company to destroy 200,000 flowers in stock and all new cuttings since self-isolation began.

With Russia's annual rose production at 300 million blooms, a month without sales could see 10-12% of the crop thrown away, Alexei Sitnikov, head of the Russian Greenhouse Union, said.

Producers have turned to the internet in an effort to boost sales, offering hefty discounts and emotional advertisements.

But slashing prices eats into profits and puts employees and entire companies at risk.

"We have a very expensive product. We now have a price that doesn't allow us to live," said Florence Gervais d'Alden, the owner of Kaluga-based firm Rose Fairy, which she set up in 2008.

She said she would eventually have to let some employees go, when a choice needs to be made between salaries and utility bills.

"The scariest thing is that this cycle cannot be stopped," she said. "I personally am absolutely ready to go bankrupt, but I am not especially sure that we will survive."