Floriculture & Nursery Crops Report Available

The Economic Research Service will begin publishing reports twice yearly.

Lauren Spiers

Published August 11, 2003

The Economic Research Service has resumed its floriculture report, which was last published in 1999. It is now available biannually, as an electronic outlook report and a yearbook, both available online. These reports provide current intelligence and forecast the effects of changing conditions in the U.S. floriculture and nursery crop sector. Topics include production, consumption, trade, prices received and more.

Highlights of this year’s results include:

  • Grower sales of floriculture crops increased 1.6 percent in 2002 from 2001, while  nursery crop sales fell by a marginal amount.
  • Together, floriculture and nursery crops reached $13.8 billion in sales in 2002, up from $13.7 billion in 2001.
  • Two-thirds of the value of U.S. floriculture production in 2002 consisted of bedding and garden plants and potted flowering plants. these plants led U.S. sales growth among the six floriculture subsectors, which also include cut flowers, foliage plants, cut cultivated greens and unfinished propagative material.
  • Florida produces almost 70 percent of total U.S. foliage plant production. The state produces about four times more foliage plants than flowering or bedding plants, its next largest green product.
  • The total number of floriculture growers fell from 12,717 in 1997 to 10,216 in 2002.
  • Although the number of both large and small growers fell, average sales of large growers now exceed $1 million. Average sales of small growers is $46,000.

    • The complete 94-page floriculture report is free and available at the ERS Web site as a PDF file. ERS will publish the economic outlook for the industry in September 2003.

    The author is Assistant Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.

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