Companies at the Mercabarna-Flor wholesale flower market are working to get everything ready for Sant Jordi’s Day, with this year’s event conditioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. In a move to guarantee maximum safety, roses will be on sale in the street for three days, from 21 to 23 April. Only authorised florists will be able to sell roses, with no stalls for organisations which usually take part.
Over the three days, some 4,200,000 roses are expected to be sold around Catalonia, around 40% less than in 2019, when sales reached 7 million. A significant increase in online sales is also expected.
Mercabarna expects to distribute a third of all roses, around 1.4 million, of which 80% will be the highly rated Freedom variety. With florists struggling to get supplies of this flower this year, the price of roses is set to rise by 10%.