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The Bulb Trade
Every year Americans spend hundred of millions of dollars on flower bulbs. About 75 percent of these are imported. Ninety percent of the imports come from the Netherlands, and the remaining 10 percent are principally from Great Britain and Israel.
While the vast majority of these bulbs are propagated, many of certain types of bulbs are collected from the wild. In an attempt to reduce pressure on wild populations, three bulb genera have been listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. CITES export permits and government approval are required before all species of cyclamens, snowdrops, and sternbergias can be commercially traded. In 1996 the convention came into force in Turkey, long the epicenter of wild-bulb collection. Today, the country's quota system for wild-collected species is considered among the best in the world, capable of protecting its native bulb populations.
In recent years, much progress has been made with the bulb industry in the Netherlands, which in 1990 began phasing in a labeling program: As of 1995, all bulbs exported by Dutch firms, including species bulbs, hybrids, and cultivars, have been bearing the labels "from wild sources" or "from cultivated stock." Dealers in other European countries and in America have not signed this agreement and therefore are not obligated to comply with the labeling programs. While some dealers have pledged not to sell wild-collected bulbs, others continue to do so.