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Cut-Flower Production in Colombia—A Major Development Success Story for Women?

Author

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  • V Meier

    (Geographisches Institut, TU München, Arcistraße 21, D 80290 München, Germany)

Abstract

Starting in the 1970s, the production of cut flowers for export has spread in Colombia's central high land, the Sabana de Bogotá. Creating some 75 000 jobs by the mid-1990s, the Colombian flower industry has been described by the World Bank as one of the major development success stories of the last two decades. In the first part of the paper the author examines possible reasons for this success, considering Colombia's position on the global market as well as economic restructuring, demographic, and social changes in Colombia which explain not only why flower production fits well into government restructuring plans, but also the availability of cheap labour—one of the key factors in international competition. As 60% to 80% of the workers in the cut-flower industry are female, the main focus is on the rising number of women seeking employment. In the second part of the paper the author attempts to show how the benefits and costs of employment by the flower industry are perceived by the different local actors. Drawing on monographs written by local researchers, focus-group interviews with workers, and expert interviews, she discusses different themes, for example, employment practices, working conditions at the farms, and housing conditions in the worker's communities, changing gender relations, and women's emancipation and their new dependency on the firm. The flower industry is shown to draw on economic and social changes in wider Colombian society and to reinforce some of these changes. The women workers, although gaining income and status and finding industrial-type working relations, pay with a double work load and by living in difficult social and environmental conditions entailing constant health and unemployment risks.

Suggested Citation

  • V Meier, 1999. "Cut-Flower Production in Colombia—A Major Development Success Story for Women?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(2), pages 273-289, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:31:y:1999:i:2:p:273-289
    DOI: 10.1068/a310273
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Altha J. Cravey, 1997. "The Politics of Reproduction: Households in the Mexican Industrial Transition," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(2), pages 166-186, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anouk Patel‐Campillo, 2011. "Transforming Global Commodity Chains: Actor Strategies, Regulation, and Competitive Relations in the Dutch Cut Flower Sector," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 87(1), pages 79-99, January.
    2. Greta Friedemann-Sanchez, 2006. "Assets In Intrahousehold Bargaining Among Women Workers In Colombia'S Cut-Flower Industry," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 247-269.
    3. Andre Croppenstedt & Markus Goldstein & Nina Rosas, 2013. "Gender and Agriculture: Inefficiencies, Segregation, and Low Productivity Traps," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 79-109, February.
    4. Muhammad, Andrew & Ngeleza, Guyslain K., 2009. "European Union preferential trade agreements with developing countries and their impact on Colombian and Kenyan carnation exports to the United Kingdom:," IFPRI discussion papers 862, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

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