The future of floriculture: Mature, but primed for growth

Added on 03 January 2024

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The future of floriculture: Mature, but primed for growth

Is floriculture a “mature” industry? I ask this question because it’s come up at some greenhouse technology conferences I’ve attended. These meetings were largely focused on the controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) space, and I can recall two instances of speakers referring to the floriculture market as mature.

I have mixed feelings about this. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I would suggest that the industry was indeed mature. While outside investment dollars were pouring into the CEA market, ornamental growers were largely driven by the need to improve labor and crop production efficiency.

But fast forward a few years, and I would put it another way: the floriculture industry is still mature, but is also primed for growth. There’s been such an immense wave of new consumers gained during the pandemic, and their demographics and needs are so diverse that there are endless options of plants that appeal to them.

And growers are responding: our most recent Top 100 Growers survey responses reflect the potential for rapid expansion in production. Growers are indeed putting the income gained since 2020 to good use.

I’ve been in this industry for about 10 years (more on that below), and I’ve seen so much change during that time. Highlighting these changes, from biocontrols to breeding, was one of our goals in putting together our special January issue, which should be hitting mailboxes soon. We had so many great conversations with people from across the industry, and the underlying theme was one of excitement, especially with newcomers emerging from within the industry and outside of it.