A florist in Llanishen has told CJS News she should be charging up to £100 for a bouquet of red roses blaming new Brexit import controls for increasing the cost of running her business.
Natalie Briard, the owner of Hearts and Flowers, said she imports her flowers from Holland with new checks at borders pushing up the cost of her products. But, she has decided to “take the hit” and keep the price of her flowers the same, to keep business going.
She said: “A dozen of the best roses, tall, long stem nice, big head is £75 for the dozen which has been same price for the last 5-6 years. So prices have stayed the same, but not for us . We take the hit. We’re not getting as much for it. But you just can’t pass it on to the customer. They won’t buy it”.
She continued: “Rather than going to auction in Holland, a lot of my suppliers have started sourcing direct with the growers to keep prices down instead of auction.
“A lot of our roses now come from Colombia. They are cheaper. I’ve seen the prices increase quite a lot since we have started using them but they are still cheaper than the Dutch ones”.
However, she said whilst the have been able to kept prices down for the customer, she has had to make sacrifices like cutting staff hours.
How much have other Valentine’s gifts gone up by?
With Valentine’s day looming, lovers across Wales could face an average bill of over £200 to make their Valentine’s day extra special.
According to the Office for National Statistics the average price of red wine (75cl) will cost you around £7.50 and a bottle of wine (75cl) will cost £22.42 . This is a 7% increase from last year.
If you were thinking about staying overnight in a hotel, the average price per night is £110, also an increase of 7% from last year.