Der Flughafen als Standortfaktor für den Blumen-Anbau am Beispiel von Kolumbien

Abstract

It was only through the development of modern air transport that the comparative advantages of the Tropics could be fully used by the industrialized nations. This is well known with respect to the extreme increase of international mass tourism.But it is also valid for specialised agricultural crops like fruits and cut flowers, the production of which is much less profitable in the temperate zones of Europe and North America because of their low winter temperatures and their high wages. Thus, in the Western European cut flower market, Italy, the traditional supplier, was out stripped by Israel. But, more astonishing, for some species far distant countries like Kenya and Colombia must be taken as serious competitors, although the Netherlands are still leading thanks to their high technology and their subsidized natural gas (Tab. 4). Nevertheless, since about 1970, Colombia has developed into the world's second most important export country of cut flowers, some 80 to 90% being sold to the USA (Tab. 2 and 3). This paper describes the locational factors and the development of this new agrobusiness and discusses its impact on socio-economic and regional patterns. Most of the cut flower farms are located, close to the airport of the Colombian capital, 550 m above sea level, in the Sabana de Bogota. This very flat plain has rich humus soils and an extremely stable tropical highland climate.However, as heavy showers and frosts may occur throughout the year, the cultivation of flowers is carried out in relatively simple greenhouse constructions with roofs made of plastic material, already covering some 1,500 hectares (Tab. 6). In spite of modern technology, the cultivation requires a lot of manual labour, which is mostly done by women. Together with the secondary industries (Zulieferbetriebe), transport, etc. the cut flower production employs at least 50,000 persons. The export volume has grown to some 55,000 tons worth 141 million dollars (Tab. 2). This accounts for 4.5% of the total export from Colombia and is surpassed only by coffee and bananas (Tab.1). Regarding the developmental politics, some questions are raised with respect to the danger of protectionist measures of the import countries, the competitive land use of milk production, the contamination of the Rio Bogota, and the social situation of the personnel employed.