Washington, D.C. – A new affiliation between the American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) and the Japan Nurserymen’s Association (JNA) will be announced at 9 a.m. on July 18 at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston.
A delegation of more than 17 from the JNA will be in attendance, including JNA President Tsutomu Hataya and Ristuko Nomura from the Agricultural Trade Office in Osaka, Japan. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Doug Gillespie, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, will also preside over the partnership ceremony. This event formalizes the relationship between the two national associations, and will aid in the further development of horticultural trade between the two countries.
“The appreciation of landscape plants is universal,” says Wayne Mezitt, ANLA president. “This is a partnership of cooperation and support to increase international understanding about each country’s green industry and association activities. Through this partnership, we hope to improve management and plant cultural practices with visits to each other’s member businesses; increase international education and friendship among future industry leaders; and strengthen our respective businesses and associations through idea exchanging and enhanced relationships.”
The partnership grew out of increased trading between U.S. green industry firms with Japanese firms throughout the past few years. Because of the increased interest in each country’s nursery stock, the ANLA Board of Directors voted to establish a relationship with the JNA to initiate visits among U.S. green industry businesses and Japanese firms, improve trading among the two countries and begin a student exchange program.
Before this increased interest and alliance, the market for nursery plant products in Japan was a sector that was unexplored by U.S. suppliers. As a result, Japanese nurserymen did not know much about U.S. nursery plant variety, availability or the requirements for their care. Conversely, the Japanese market was not well known by U.S. suppliers. Currently, the Netherlands is a dominant supplier of ornamental plant products to the Japanese nursery traders and occupies more than 90 percent of the Japanese market for imported nursery products.
In recent years, the industry and regional agriculture interests in various parts of the United States have launched independent U.S. marketing initiatives. The partnership between ANLA and JNA will help expand communications regarding these initiatives as well.
The author is Managing Editor of Lawn & Landscape and can be reached at nwisniewski@lawnandlandscape.com.