Tony Bagala and his son, Michael, have been selling flowers at the Sydney Flower Market for over 30 years and together they have seen significant changes in the industry.
When Tony first started in the flower business, times were more simple.
There was less variety in flowers and less competition.
“Once upon a time it was only carnations, spray carnations, roses, and chrysanthemums, I didn't have that much competition but today there are so many varieties,” he said.
“Part of the thing is that a lot of the flowers are coming from overseas as well and that's one thing that really, very hard to compete against other countries.”
There are a huge variety of flowers compared to when he started says Tony Bagala. Source: SBS
Tony said this change only started in the last 20 years, but that the competition from overseas continues to grow.
“More and more is happening now everyday, we’re getting more and more flowers coming into the country.”
On top of international competition, Tony’s son Michael said increasing expenses is making business tough.
“You’ve got water costs that have quadrupled, electricity costs have gone up dramatically, labour costs have gone up dramatically, chemical costs, fertiliser costs, wages,” Michael said.
“So basically what’s happening is, it's pushing the Aussie farmers, they’re downscaling to a size that they can manage on their own.”
Michael wants consumers to buy more Australian grown flowers to support Australian farmers and said consumers get better value for money buying locally grown flowers.
Michael Bagala says some Australian flower farms are finding it hard to cope with global markets. Source: SBS
“Australian grown flowers obviously last longer, the foliage on the stem it's always a lot greener it’s a lot lusher, you will get an extra 4 or 5 days out of it,” he said.
As the market gets harder for Australian growers, Michael said the Australian government should adopt similar policies to Europe, where the governments subsidise growers.
“If they really want growers to be here in the next 10 or 15 years, they've gotta start giving us a little bit of a subsidy to help us restructure our farms because farms age,” he said.
“Unless you keep throwing money back into it, the infrastructure gets old and new growing methods come along which you've got to keep putting in place and keep updating.
“I think if the government can subsidise us, that would help us keep the industry alive, keep the flower growers going.”
Despite struggles within the industry, the Bagalas said they hope to continue in the flower-growing business.
The Bagalas are originally from Italy, and even back in Europe, their family has been involved in farming for over 160 years.
“We don't mind a bit of hard work, I mean our life, even from back home we always been involved in farms,” said Tony.
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