The highlights of GROEN-Direkt’s 2023 Autumn Fair
Added on 29 August 2023
The most important and most noteworthy fair news in four highlights:
1. Mediterranean range very popular
This edition of the Autumn Fair once again boasted a beautiful range of garden plants. After the successful launch of a range of its own imported Mediterranean plants at its Spring Fair, GROEN-Direkt once again presented a wide variety of Mediterranean plants such as herbs and shrubs at its Autumn Fair. “We are very satisfied with our decision to take matters into our own hands as far as this group of products is concerned. At the same time, we’re keeping a close eye on our overall range and our logistic performance. The turnover and the reactions to our sample presentation at this fair give us great confidence for next spring,” says Hans Cok, assistant director of GROEN-Direkt.
2. Market on the move
According to Cok, things are now going more smoothly for the garden-plant market after three turbulent years characterised by both shortages and surpluses. “The Autumn Fair showed that supply and demand are now well balanced, which is good news for both growers and buyers.” He adds that this does not mean the market is stagnating.“Sales at this fair were a lot better than those at last year’s edition, when political and economic uncertainties induced caution among consumers and also buyers. We can’t yet draw up an exact balance sheet as sales are still continuing via the webshop, but we expect our turnover to be 15 to 20% higher than that of last year’s Autumn Fair. And we’re delighted with this prognosis,” says Cok.
3. Kick-off of Christmas tree season
The Autumn Fair traditionally marks the start of GROEN-Direkt’s exclusive presale of Christmas trees. On top of 500 m2 of many different species/size combinations of trees, the presentation also featured all the attributes required for the trees’ sale. Envisioning a good Christmas tree season, buyers and traders did not allow the summery temperatures to deter them from benefitting from the attractive special presale prices.
4. New: first edition of the Green Retail Awards
This fair saw the first edition of the Geen Retail Awards. The products submitted for the three awards – the ‘Best KVBC Novelty’, ‘Best Market Introduction’ and ‘Visitors’ Favourite’ - were presented in three places. The specialists of the KVBC – the Royal Boskoop Horticultural Society – chose ‘Diervilla splendens’ developed by Vakplant BV as the best novelty. An international jury selected the best market introduction. ‘Precious Earth (mosses)’ submitted by Vof de Leeuw den Engelsen was chosen as the winner among the 16 highly diverse entries in this category, earning it a platform in the Dutch Intratuin range of garden centres. Visitors were invited to vote for the ‘Visitors’ Favourite’ via a green balls ballot system. ‘Hydrangea paniculata LIVING LITTLE ROSY®’ developed by Hinrichs Pflanzen was by far the favourite at this Autumn Fair.
GROEN-Direkt’s 2024 fair calendar
- Spring Fair : Tuesday 6 February and Wednesday 7 February 2024
- Autumn Fair : Wednesday 21 August and Thursday 22 August 2024
- Address : Noorwegenlaan 37, 2391 PW Hazerswoude, the Netherlands
- Fair calendar : for a survey of all the fairs, please go to the website
- Webshop : the entire range can also be ordered via de websho
About GROEN-Direkt
In its capacity as the largest green market in Europe, GROEN-Direkt has been combining the supply and demand sides of the garden plant market for 25 years. The company’s 30 annual sample fairs supplemented with its webshop showing frequently updated sample photos offer interested buyers a tremendous seasonal range from which to order garden plants all the year round. This GROEN-Direkt is able to do by working closely together with 500 specialist growers in the Dutch Boskoop horticultural region, and also far beyond. Since 2022, GROEN-Direkt has been part of Green Retail Events, the organisation responsible for the PLANTARIUM |GROEN-Direkt fairs.
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