A Blooming Business

Filmmaker Ton van Zantvoort casts doubt on the international trade in developing countries. In A Blooming Business, he exposes the outrageous practices of large florist nurseries in the Kenyan province of Naivasha. It is true the flower industry has created employment, but the path is not strewn with roses. Water levels in the nearby lake are seriously threatened. The chemicals the nurseries use spoil more than just the water and the fishing; the labourers are exposed to it as well - before being laid off. The industry misuses the Fairtrade hallmark. Female employees are left to the supervisors' mercies. In miniature portraits of people involved, Van Zantvoort sketches the suffering caused by a flourishing, global rose trade, particularly by Dutch florists on a local level.