Social investing safeguards Colombian flower farms

By Alisha Laventure

CHIA, Colombia (Reuters) - As the cost of oil and value of the Colombian peso has surged this year, flower farms are turning to social programs to help workers, many of whom are displaced by a guerrilla war and under pressure to improve efficiency.

Profits are down at plantations such as the MG Farm on the outskirts of Bogota, which employs close to 1,000 workers, who harvest between 500,000 and 1.2 million flowers per week.

The industry provides jobs to tens of thousands of people who have been pushed out of the countryside by the violence of Colombia's cocaine-funded Marxist insurgency.

Many settle in flower farm communities around Bogota and Medellin. Their jobs are what keep them out of the poverty and crime plaguing much of the country despite increased security and economic growth under U.S.-backed President Alvaro Uribe.

With stress rising at work, MG and other farms are relying more on training, day care, counseling and other support programs.

"I don't have to worry so much about the kids while I'm working," says MG employee Maria Helena Espinosa, who often leaves her two children at the farm's day-care center.

"The center is a gift. It's a gift to all of us workers."

Arcenio Beltran, director of harvests at MG, says workers' loyalties to the company are strengthened thanks to such programs, which are funded by the farms.

"They know the company supports them, so they support the company," Beltran said.

THE MONEY SQUEEZE

Flower farming comprises 5.0 percent of total rural employment and 5.0 percent of gross national product in Colombia.

About 75 percent of Colombian flowers are exported to the United States. Farms receive weakening U.S. dollars for their overseas sales while paying expenses in the peso, which is up about 7.0 percent against the greenback over the last 12 months.

"The future of the industry is at peril," says Daniel Mojica. He is demanding a 20-30 percent increase in worker productivity to ensure that his farm stays in business.

The rise in oil prices in recent years makes fertilizers, plastic tarpaulins, and other key oil-based materials more expensive as shipping costs rise.

The Bush Administration is lobbying for a Colombian trade deal to buttress the Andean country, an ally bordered by leftist governments in Venezuela and Ecuador that are critical of Washington.