January 30th, 2023, Valentine’s Edition
Good day from the Wizard,
People are estimated to have spent $23.9 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2022—up from $21.8 billion in 2021 and the second-highest year on record. (source: National Retail Federation) Now, what will 2023 bring?
A few fun facts about Valentine’s Day (I’m sure all of you have heard these before!):
ROSES are the main flower of Valentines
Roses are the iconic love flowers because they have long been associated with expressing passion and romance, a flower meaning that’s been rooted in ancient Greek mythology.
Way back in the 17th Century, flowers became part of the Valentine’s Day traditions. Roses were especially used as they represent love in every way. Apparently, roses were Venus’ favorite flower, the Goddess of Love, as she believed that they stood for strong feelings.
Around 73% of flowers are bought by men!
Flowers are one of the main gifts given by men on Valentine’s Day. Around 73% of flowers are bought by them! (Source: Spectrio)
What we think we know about Valentines 2023
After an extremely volatile last quarter of 2022, what will happen in 2023? The flower sector is optimistic for Valentines after a less than stellar December. We all know what the last quarter of 2022 was like.
Q1 Economic and Financial
Market Outlook (Source: Peter R. Phillips, CFA®, CAIA®, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Washington Trust Wealth Management)
After an extremely volatile 2022, what can you look forward to in 2023?
2022 Recap: Good Riddance
A confluence of events such as pandemic, geopolitical crisis, and labor shortages resulted in sustained and higher than expected levels of inflation. This had forced the Federal Reserve to pivot aggressively to a restrictive monetary policy position, leading to a spike in interest rates and havoc in the financial markets. Click here to read the rest of the article!
In addition, here are some comments based on the SAF Pre-Valentines round table from Charlie Hall Professor and Ellison Chair in International Floriculture (Floricultures best economist):
Conclusion:
We all need a win-win-win. as always! That’s different this year is that the Rose pinch was a two-prong attack. Phase one was for Ocean Containers and Phase two was for traditional air shipping. It seems that farms were early for the Ocean shipping and late for the air shipping. Which in the end should result in a very strong market.
“The anticipated slowdown in economic growth is more about supply scarcity, inflation, and Fed policy, rather than a lack of demand.” Hopefully this translates into flower demand. Also, we wish we could control the weather, so we are doing our anti-storm dances and hoping we avoid any weather issues for the Valentine season.
Moreover, parts of Asia and especially Europe are currently going through tough times. As much as we wish well-being on the entire world it currently looks like, the States and Canada are the lucky ones.
As always thanks for reading my rants… to a great Valentines 2023! By the powers vested in me, this document is now deemed declassified!
The Wizard and the Above All Flowers and New Bloom Solution’s Great Team
