Approximately 6 percent of Taiwan's annual exports are tied to flowers grown locally and shipped to Japan, according to a recent report by Focus Taiwan.
Following the devastating earthquake that hit Northern Japan on March 11, the Council of Agriculture (COA) in Taiwan announced that flower exports would significantly decrease.
Approximately 5.15 million stems of flowers, valuing at about $3.17 million, will not be shipped.
The director-general of the COA Agriculture and Food Agency has said that flamingo flowers, chrysanthemums, grandiflorum as well as butterfly orchids will not be exported due to difficulties related to storage and electrical shortage in Japan.
For those who wish to send condolence flowers following the quake and tsunami in Japan, funeral wreaths as well as sympathy plants and sympathy roses can be bought and shipped online.
Japan suffered the worst earthquake disaster in recent history when a 9.0-magnitude quake struck off its Northeastern coast. Seismologists had anticipated that a large-scale quake would occur along the fault lines on which Japan rests, but no one had predicted the size and damage of the recent quake.