Benefiting from the green boom

The Europe-wide trend in owning plants and the related boom in the garden business is having an impact not least on the sectors and countries that supply the core product of this trend: the producers and exporters of plants.
Spain has reported a double-digit rise in its export figures. Spanish exports of live plants and flowers increased by 11 per cent in 2017 compared to 2016, to a total of EUR 362.7 mio. There was a notable improvement in live plants, the sector's main export, up 11 per cent to EUR 303.1 mio, according to figures published by the Directorate-General of Customs.
Export sales of live plants showed an improvement in outdoor plants, worth EUR 116.3 mio, while indoor plants were up 8 per cent and worth EUR 54.9 mio. Tree and shrub exports rose by 24 per cent to EUR 50.4 mio.
Cut flower exports also rallied in 2017, climbing 4 per cent over 2016 sales to a total of EUR 40.3 mio. This success was mainly due to healthy growth in rose sales, which were worth EUR 9.7 mio, 271 per cent more than the previous year. However, carnations, Spain's leading cut flower export, were down by 43 per cent to EUR 11.2 mio.
The sector's other leading exports, bulbs and foliage, also did better in 2017 than in 2016, with bulbs up 44 per cent to EUR 4.5 mio, and foliage by 19 per cent to 14.7 per cent mio.

The Valencia region and Andalusia are Spain's leading live flower and plant exporting regions and have similar export figures: EUR 87.9 mio for the Valencia region, 12 per cent up on 2016, and EUR 86.1 mio for Andalusia, the same as the previous year. They are followed by Catalonia, with EUR 69.3 mio, up by 12 per cent. Castile and Leon sold EUR 46.5 mio and achieved year-on-year growth of 23 per cent, followed by Murcia with EUR 20.5 mio (-8 per cent); the Canaries, with EUR 10.1 mio, also performed well (+16 per cent).
The countries that import most of Spain's live flowers and plants are France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Italy. France is still the main destination market, but it only grew by 2 per cent in 2017, a lower figure than other countries. Exports to the Netherlands increased to EUR 54.1 mio (+13 per cent), while Spain sold EUR 33.5 mio worth of live plants and flowers to Portugal, and EUR 30.9 mio to Italy, an…