January 23, 2024
IFPA's Director of Floral Programs Deb Zoellick offers this message to members of the IFPA floral community.
Happy New Year everyone!
I truly hope you had a great holiday season and have been able to spend quality time with your friends and family. I am also hoping you are all well and in a good state of mind. If not buy yourself a plant or some flowers.
We had a Floral Industry Update on January 23 from 1-2ET. That is probably about the same time you get the newsletter, so I am going to give you some of the highlights. It was kind of a look to the past, a look at present, and a look forward. We covered 5 main topics:
- Size of the Industry - We had a pretty good year last year, with some countries doing better than others. Over the past 20 years, the Floriculture Industry grew at an average rate of 7.5% (plants and cuts) and it is expected to soften but still grow over the next 10 years.
- Imports & Exports – Cut Flower Winners in Exports have been Mexico, Colombia, China, Canada and Ecuador. Winners in Imports are Poland, United States, Italy and the UK. For Potted Plants Import Winners are the UK, Italy, and the US. For Potted Plant Export region Winners are Canada, US and Taiwan.
- Industry Headwinds include Consumers’ concern for the environmental impact of transporting flowers; access to labor; and buying with an eye to social and environmental sustainability. Demonstrating meaningful and measurable progress towards sustainability targets and the spin on the positive helps strengthen brand loyalty. Using a more proactive message has a more positive impact than responsive or defensive messaging.
- State of the US Economy - The Floral Production is centralized in Mainly 10 states: California, Florida, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Connecticut so Locally Grown is still doing well. The US imported nearly $3.3 billion worth of cut flower and potted plants import value, from 81 different countries.
- Consumer Trends - Brighter bolder colors will change interior design trends but consumers continue to sprinkle in elements of nature for mental health and wellbeing. These wellness aspects and capitalizing on feelings of joy that plants and flowers bring have proven effective in years past. Consumers are still looking for quality, but in this economy, they are also looking for a value to treat themselves and others.
We have started some Floral Specific Task Forces. We will be talking about these and some lively discussions when the Floral Committee meets the day after the Floral Conference on February 28th.
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up to attend the Floral Conference Anaheim. There is a Breeder Showcase in the morning for Buyers and they are encouraged to have a grower accompany them. If they choose not to, growers can come in after the buyers go through as we have extended this years' time in the schedule. We are hoping Buyers find that WOW item that leads to conversations about getting these items in their stores to make their stores special. Then afterward is our Floral Conference which starts at 1:00pm local time. We have some interesting topics that will all tie to ways you can increase sales, especially in the slow months of July, August and September.
We are also still looking for Sponsors for the Anaheim event. If you do sponsor the Anaheim event, we will also make mention of your company during our March 20th Webinar on using Color to build sales, and our Miami Conference on June 18th. Those 2 callouts for your company are included when you sponsor the Anaheim Floral Conference. Please contact Jasen Bange jbange@freshproduce.com for more information.
We’ll have more information about The Miami Floral Conference, but it sounds like one that I really want to go to…even if I weren’t going to already be there. Don’t miss it.