Resumption of growth

Most European consumers seem to have regained their confidence following the financial crisis. The markets for flowers and plants are also profiting from this. Indicators of the positive trend are provided by the import figures, which picked up once more in most markets in 2010. The value of exports solely from the Netherlands to the other EU countries rose by 7 per cent on average in comparison with the first nine months of 2009. However, in most EU states the volume of imports has not yet reached the 2007 level. Consumption in most pot plant markets also developed positively in the first nine months of 2010. Dutch pot plant exports to the EU countries rose by an average of 7 per cent. The German market, which is the biggest in Europe, imported pot plants worth € 555 mio from the Netherlands alone. That is 4 per cent up on the first nine months of 2009. According to a forecast based on data from two industry associations, AIPH and HBAG, the market for flowers and pot plants in western and central Europe recorded a volume of € 16.85 bn at retail trade prices in 2009, compared with € 17.2 bn in 2008 and € 17.7 bn in 2007. The market for flowers and plants was expected to grow to € 17.4 bn once again in 2010. The German market for cut flowers, which accounts for a 31 per cent share of the total market, is the most important in western Europe, followed by Britain at 26 per cent and France at 18 per cent. The western European market for pot plants was estimated to be worth € 7.7 bn at retail trade prices in 2009. The 55 per cent of this market accounted for by Germany represents the lion’s share of expenditure on pot plants in western and central Europe. The 245 mio consumers in western and central Europe were expected to spend € 70 per capita on flowers and plants in 2010, including € 38 on cut flowers. The crisis put a damper on the positive development of the eastern European markets, which had been manifesting themselves as new growth markets. Although some of the eastern European markets have increased their imports substantially once again, the 2008 level was not expected to be achieved in 2010. For example, Dutch exports of cut flowers to Poland once more rose to the same level as in 2008, but there was a minus of 2 per cent in exports of pot plants to that country. The imports of cut flowers to Russia increased by 12 per cent in the first nine months of 2010, but were still not expected to get back to the 2008 level. The markets in Slovakia and the…