By Erwin M. Mascariñas Correspondent ROSE farmers in the town of Claveria in Misamis Oriental Province are looking forward to the sales of flowers on Valentine’s day after the restrictions made by the Corona Virus pandemic almost killed off their cut-flower industry in 2020. In Claveria, the rose plantations are concentrated in the small community valley of Barangay Mat-i, with several of the plantations in the area reported to harvest three times a week, reaching a weekly cut between 3,000 to 5,000 dozen of roses. “We did not anticipate that the impact brought by the travel restrictions would be that big in 2020. The pandemic brought a huge loss to the town's cut-flower industry which had just begun to climb in 2019,” Pat Domaloan, a municipal agriculturist of Claveria. Domaloan explained that he estimated that the growers of the roses plantations lost around 80 to 100 thousand pesos per hectare in 2020 as most of the roses just rotted out in the farms after the border restrictions throughout Misamis Oriental and Region 10. “Between March to October, most of the roses were just thrown and rotted as there was no way to sell them to Cagayan de Oro and other parts of Misamis Oriental. Some of the farms here even supply roses to Butuan City and as far as Cebu City,” said Domaloan. Domaloan explained that it was only when the quarantine loosened up that they monitored the slow gradual climb of the flower farms and saw the increase of people buying ornamental plants which have become popular during the pandemic. “February’s valentine’s day celebration will be a huge boost to the cut-flower industry in the town and most of the farmers had already prepared for it since late January. We heard that orders and reservations had already been coming in from different resellers in Cagayan de Oro City and other parts of Nothern Mindanao,” he added. Domaloan pointed out that the plantation area has grown more than 40% in 2020, which he estimated to be around 80 hectares in 2021. Data from 2019 revealed that each farm earns around Php 900,000 to as much as 1.5 million during Valentine’s Day. Andre Tapongot, one of the rose farm managers pointed out that on valentine’s day they hope to sell the roses between 350 to 450 pesos per dozen. “On regular days, the roses are sold at between 30 to 50 pesos and sometimes as high as 80 pesos a dozen depending on the supply because there are weeks that some farms harvest less. But after the crushing blow last year in which we lost millions we hope that this year we will slowly recover and hopefully the day of the heart will help kick it off,” said Tapongot. Tapongot stated that some farmers even stopped planting roses and it is just recently that they are again reinvigorated as the demand has slowly begun rising and with valentine’s day coming, most saw the opportunity to get back up. The initial harvest of the roses planted in the area is between 4-5 months after budding with a production average of 400 dozen per hectare on each harvest with the varieties ranging from Holland long stem red roses, red blood, and cabbage white roses. The only landlocked community among the 24 towns in the province of Misamis Oriental, Claveria’s agricultural growth is attributed to its cold climate and fertile land brought by pyroclastic deposits from nearby extinct volcanoes namely, Mount Balatocan and Mount Mogabon.