情人节偶遇春节 玫瑰花尴尬了！

The approach of Valentine’s Day has witnessed a decline of fresh flower sales, which traders attributed to the weather and its proximity this year to the Spring Festival.

情人节来了，但是鲜花的销量却似乎并不高，商人们将其归因于天气原因以及今年的春节与情人节太近了。

Lu Yang, a fresh flower trader, said most flowers are bought in big cities, which many people are leaving to head home for the festival.

鲜花贸易商陆洋称，大部分鲜花销量来自大城市，而很多人此刻正赶回家过春节。

Orders for Valentine’s Day have dropped dramatically, Lu said.

“情人节的鲜花订单少了很多啊，”陆说。

The most important festival to Chinese, Spring Festival usually falls in January or early February. This year, Spring Festival Eve falls on Thursday, one day after Valentine’s Day.

作为中国人最重要的节日，春节一般在一月或二月初来临。今年的除夕夜是周四，刚好是情人节的后一天。

Lu’s company in Kunming provides fresh flowers to dozens of flower stores in Hefei, Anhui province. Orders are usually fixed one week before Valentine’s Day.

陆在昆明的公司为安徽合肥几十家花店供应鲜花。订单通常在情人节前一周便已定好。

She said this year’s order volume is only half of last year’s.

她说今年情人节的订单量只有去年的一半。

At Kunming International Flora Auction Trade Center, the country’s only and Asia’s second-largest flower auction center, hundreds of purchasers including Lu usually face fierce competition for flowers.

昆明国际花卉拍卖交易中心是亚洲第二大、也是我国唯一一个鲜花拍卖中心，包括陆在内的成百上千位采购商常常在这儿面临激烈的鲜花竞争。

Unlike the full auction center last year, Lu said this year’s pre-Valentine’s Day auction saw many empty seats.

与去年拍卖中心的满座场面不同，陆称，今年的情人节节前拍卖会上有很多空位。

But the clash of the two holidays hasn’t influenced online traders much.

不过，双节“相撞”并未对网络交易商产生多少影响。

Flower seller Xiao Yong, most of whose clients are online flower traders in North China, said the orders for Valentine’s Day have remained stable compared to previous years.

鲜花卖家肖勇的大部分网购顾客来自我国北部，他说，与前些年相比，今年的情人节订单量保持稳定。

Prices, however, have soared dramatically.

但是鲜花价格却涨得飞快。

According to Zhang Li, manager of the auction center, the average price of roses reached 2.6 yuan (41 cents) each during the week before Feb 14, nearly 60 to 70 percent higher than the same period last year.

据拍卖中心经理张丽称，情人节前一周内，玫瑰的平均价格涨到2.6元（约41美分），与去年同一时期相比上涨约60-70％。

A top quality rose named "Maria" was bid for at 12.35 yuan on Monday, a record high in the past seven days.

周一时一种名为“Maira”的优质玫瑰收购价达到12.35元，创下过去7天的价格新高。

As China’s largest flower production area, Yunnan experienced a cold wave in December.

作为我国最大的鲜花产地，云南在去年12月遭遇了一场寒潮。

It was a crucial time for flowers to grow the buds but the cold wave cut production by nearly 30 percent, Zhang said.

“那是鲜花长出嫩芽的关键期，而寒潮让鲜花产量减少了近30％，”张说。

About 80 percent of the center’s sales are outside of Yunnan. Overseas exports make up 15 percent, mainly to Japan, Australia, Thailand and Russia.

拍卖中心约80％的销量来自云南省外。海外出口量占到15％，主要销往日本，澳大利亚，泰国和俄罗斯。

Xu Qianfei, a seller targeting markets in Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong, said the orders in those regions are not influenced by the overlapping two holidays.

卖家许前飞的目标市场为泰国、新加坡和香港，他称这些地区的订单量并没有受双节重叠的影响。

In Flower World, the largest individual flower trade market in Kunming, more than 6.5 billion flowers were traded last year, an increase of nearly 8 percent over 2016.

在昆明最大的个体鲜花交易市场“鲜花世界”，去年的鲜花交易量超过65亿，比2016年上涨近8％。

We’ve seen more individual purchasers in recent years, thanks to people’s increasing incomes. More people spend money on fresh flowers for their home. Also, many are interested in flower arranging, said Song Rong, an official with the market’s publicity department.

“由于人们收入提高了，这些年我们发现越来越多的个体买家（来市场买花）。更多人为了装点家里而购买鲜花。也有很多对插花艺术感兴趣的人，”市场宣传部的人员宋荣说。