Flower industry needs to nip HIV in the bud

Ethiopia's flower industry is a booming business, but AIDS campaigners fear that inaction by farm owners and government, combined with a poorly educated workforce, could provide fertile ground for HIV.

"I've been working here for six months and in that time I've never heard mention of HIV/AIDS," Sofanit Nigusu, 21, told IRIN/PlusNews as she carefully pruned rose cuttings in one of a huge number of commercial greenhouses at the heart of the country's flower industry. "I know it's a problem, but outside [the capital] Addis Ababa nothing is done about it."

Ethiopia's floriculture industry generates over US$20 million per year and is projected to more than double in size over the next few years. But there are growing concerns that little is being done to address the AIDS pandemic in an industry notorious for attracting a transient, uneducated workforce vulnerable to the virus.

"The problem we face is that the flower industry is an emerging industry, but growing very quickly," said Gashaw Mengistu, coordinator at the HIV/AIDS Resource Centre in Addis Ababa. "Now, the majority of workers come from nearby villages, but in the future there could be a crisis, as people are lured from around the country to work on the farms, living together in camp-like settings ... this is when conditions are ripe for the spread of the virus."

I don't think HIV/AIDS awareness education is the responsibility of the companies here

Coffee, Ethiopia's largest export earner, is largely produced on huge government farms, where workers live in camps for months, away from their families. Poor AIDS education, testing and treatment have seen HIV/AIDS become an increasing problem in the coffee industry, and the fear is that the flower industry is headed the same way unless immediate action is taken.

Passing the buck

Horticulture is not new to Ethiopia, but private-sector interest in the industry is. In early 2000, investors began arriving in the Horn of Africa country to take advantage of the 'floriculture-friendly climate'.

However, as Felix Steeghs, owner of Ethioplants, a Dutch- and Greek-owned flower-propagation company, explained, few feel the responsibility to ensure that their workforce is educated about HIV.

"I don't think raising HIV/AIDS awareness education is the responsibility of the companies here; it is the responsibility of the government," Steeghs told IRIN/PlusNews.

With high levels of unemployment in rural Ethiopia, horticultural estates have a cheap, plentiful workforce available. "Even if people are sick, it won't affect our productivity ... we don't need to pay health benefits," he said.

This attitude has angered anti-AIDS groups, who say neglecting workers could spread the pandemic in rural areas, particularly among a migrating workforce.

Ethiopia's prevalence rate is estimated at 3.5 percent, and rural prevalence remains low at just 1.9 percent, but poor levels of awareness and access to treatment and testing services, combined with continued inaction, could create a potentially dangerous situation.

Absent government

Campaigners say neighbouring Kenya - Africa's largest flower exporter, where large flower farms usually provide their workers with housing, healthcare and even education for their children - should serve as a model for Ethiopia's government and farm owners.

Large international companies offer usually scarce rural jobs but are reticent to take on the responsibility of providing AIDS education and awareness, and activists say it is up to the government to make them toe the line. Ethiopia exports 70 tonnes of flowers daily and employs an estimated 30,000 people.

According to Gashaw, "The government is only focusing on trying to attract and support private investors at the moment. There are labour laws and standards that must be adhered to, but the government does not want to enforce these laws and put pressure on these investors to follow the laws."

va/kr/oa/he