Can the flower boom of the 1990s continue? Can this be done without wreaking environmental havoc? Is it socially and economically sustainable, that is, will flower exports support prosperous and equitable development?

Methodology: The field research was carried out in Ecuador and included interviews with flower growers, marketers, and breeders, and officials of the Quito chamber of commerce, USAID, and many other institutions. The research was accompanied by an exhaustive literature search and the analysis of published data.

Results - Quantitative Sustainability: Ecuador's position in the global flower market and the country's extraordinary comparative advantage in flower cultivation show that there is room for continued rapid expansion of flower exports.

Environmental Sustainability: The extent of health and environmental problems caused by pesticides is unknown. The only quantitative study of the issue reported on a single flower farm. Flower cultivation in Colombia has been extensively studied, although without statistics based on carefully drawn samples. Interviews indicate that some growers use the industry's best practices and that other growers have dismal environmental records. If regulatory institutions would ensure that all growers use best practices and if further research continues to improve those best practices, flower cultivation in Ecuador could become environmentally sustainable.

Social and Economic Sustainability: Flower cultivation is labor intensive, and much of this labor force is female. Women in Ecuador's flower industry earn wages that are a large multiple of what they could earn in alternative employment. The Ecuadorian flower industry is spatially concentrated; the development of an industry that employs a quarter of the rural working population (not counting multiplier effects) in one of the poorest provinces in the country has had an extraordinary impact on the lives of the rural poor.