Green in places

Imports of cut flowers and pot plants by the Northern European markets from the Netherlands showed uneven development in the first nine months of 2010. While Finnish imports of both cut flowers and pot plants increased by almost 20 per cent, so continuing the growth curve of the past few years, Dutch exports to Denmark fell drastically in some areas. In particular there was a decline in the value of the supply of pot plants. Moreover, Swedish imports from the Netherlands have not yet returned to their pre-crisis level. Although Norway imported considerably more cut flowers, so that the predicted spend on cut flowers in 2010 will probably stabilize at the high level of around € 63 per capita, the Norwegian pot plant market declined for the fourth year in succession. However, Norway is still the world champion in terms of per-capita expenditure on pot plants with a spend of around € 56 per person, followed by Germany at around € 52 and Sweden at € 48. The estimated total volume of the Northern European markets with their total of around 28 mio consumers was € 2.5 bn - € 2.6 bn at retail trade prices in 2009. This corresponded to per-capita expenditure of around € 90. Per-capita consumption was around € 92 prior to the crisis. Finnish consumers, who proved to be unimpressed by the crisis in 2008/2009, continued to step up their expenditure on cut flowers again in 2010, following increases in both 2008 and 2009. Download: