A family-owned Aussie flower farm is blooming in the face of stiff competition from cheap imported blossoms, proving the value of locally produced flora. 

With the peak body Flower Industry Australia (FIA) estimating half of the flowers sold in Australia are imported, local farms like those owned by the Padovano family are a rose among the thorns. 

Ingrid and John Padovano and their four children own and operate Jonima Flowers, a third-generation wholesale business which supplies the Sydney Flower Market and local farmers’ markets. 

The Padovano's have been Westpac customers for over 20 years.  Peta Ward, National General Manager, Westpac Regional and Agribusiness says, "Flower farming is complex – year-round crops, perishable inventory, weather dependencies, and constantly shifting cash flow. Farmers like Ingrid and John need financial support that flexes with seasonal demand and growth ambitions.”

Ninety-five per cent of the flowers they sell are grown year-round on their 10-hectare farm at Yanderra, south-west of Sydney. 

With the number of local flower growers in sharp decline due to the cheap imports, Ms Padovano said they were “strategic” in how they ran their business, which has 20 employees.

“We are competing with people in countries where they are paying wages of $1 a week,” Ms Padovano says. 

“So we no longer compete locally, we compete globally – in the sense that in every decision we make, we have to make it work on a global scale. That’s how we run our business.

“We try to work our way around the international competition. For instance, where you know that some types of flowers might not transport well or can’t be grown in those countries, then that’s what you grow locally. We are strategic in what we do.

“I find that people do value sustainability and the environment when they make purchasing decisions, so we make sure our flowers meet these needs.” 

The strategic approach was noticed by Ward, “What’s remarkable about Jonima is that Ingrid and John recognised early they couldn’t run this as a typical family business if they wanted to scale. That’s corporate-level thinking applied to a family farm, and it’s why they’ve gone from two people to 20 employees.”