The flower and foliage sector of Costa Rica shows its diversity and beauty in the floral design workshops

• Costa Rican designer Maria del Mar Gomez was responsible for showcasing orders to North American buyers.

The country’s tropical flowers and foliage sector this week demonstrated its versatility and various uses of its products through floral design workshops with buyers from the United States and Canada, with the goal of promoting new trends, applications and color palettes, to generate more business for business. Seven national companies participated.

The products used during the workshops were foliage such as: Cordyline leaves and tips, Indian Dracaena and Jamaican song, White Sandriana, Monstera, and others. As well as tropical flowers such as Heliconia, Heliconia Psitacurum, Musa, Bird of Paradise, Ginger and Ginger shampoo, Costus, etc.

According to Alvaro Pedra, Export Director of PROCOMER, this is one of the sectors most affected last year by the pandemic, however, it has proven to be resilient and able to outperform in international markets.

“As of the first quarter of 2021, products such as ornamental plants were exported $37 million, an increase of $8 million over the same period in 2020. Flowers and buds, for their part, generated $4.5 million in growth, compared to $8.7 million in the U.S. January-April 2020 to $13.3 million in 2021, while Leaves and Leaves rose from $9.1 million in the first quarter of 2020 to $11.5 million in 2021. These numbers give us hope and motivate us to continue working on strategies, Piedra said: Strengthening and positioning the sector to continue generating business.

The workshops, called “Tropical Dreams of Essential Costa Rica”, were led by floral designer Maria del Mar Gómez, of JUNO, dedicated to art, fashion, floral and botanical design. Gomez stated that Costa Rica’s tropical flowers and foliage, due to their sizes, shapes, and colors, offer very different contrast and design opportunities than those of traditional flowers and have a much longer useful life.

“We hope that these workshops have inspired floral designers around the world to experiment with more tropical flowers and foliage and include them in their designs,” added the floral designer.

The workshops were organized with the support of the PROCOMER Trade Promotion Offices (OPC) in the United States (Miami, Houston and New York) and Canada, with the participation of approximately 60 buyers from these markets.