China worlds number one in flower, plant production scale: Survey

China Economic Net

Beijing: The Chinese edition of International Statistics Flowers and Plants 2023 was launched by China Flower Association at the just concluded 26th Hortiflorexpo IPM Beijing.

Data shows that China was number one globally in production scale for flowers and plants, among which the production space for ornamental plants, cut flowers, pot plants and bulbs & tubers ranked the first, second and third respectively in the world.

Meanwhile, China was the world’s largest producer of carnations, lilies and cut foliage, and the second largest producer of roses and chrysanthemums. Additionally, Netherlands ranked the first in production area for bulbs, tubers corns, etc., and India was No.1 in producing space for cut flowers and pot plants. In terms of global flower trade, in 2022, Netherlands was still the largest player with its total volume of trade exceeding 14.2 billion while China ranked the twelfth with €7.96 billion.

In 2022, there were 22 countries and regions with global flower exports surpassing €1000 million, and the top five countries were the Netherlands, Colombia, Italy, Ecuador and Germany. Simultaneously, there were 19 countries and regions with global flower exports overtaking €100 million and the top five countries were the US, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and France. China’s flower exports and imports were about 568 million euro and 228 million euro correspondingly, ranking the eighth and thirteenth respectively in the world. In 1980s when we were in China, Adriaan de Wit from Jan de Wit en Zonen B.V. told China Economic Net at the 26th Hortiflorexpo China, there was mainly yellow grass, no trees, and surrounding our hotel were big plains. Over that time we really have seen the development of China, China’s flower market and local flower production. We have seen how professional the flower market currently is because a lot of our Chinese customers grew from very small one-person companies 20 or 30 years ago to very big professional companies.

In 1984, their tulip bulbs were shipped to China for the first time. Their company has witnessed the significant development of the flower industry in China as well as China’s economic rise. Now China is state-of-the-art, everything digital, something very special, he added. Looking into the future, there’s still a lot of potential, Adriaan said. We see a big e-commerce market coming up and I think that will continue improving in China. Besides that you can also see that at the expo there are a lot of Chinese companies not just in the flowers but also in the construction of greenhouses, new machinery, robots, etc.

Everything surrounding the horticulture industry is continuously improving with innovations, new varieties and new products,†Dirk Jan de Wit said. Statistics from China Flower Association official website indicate that in 2023, China’s flower and plant imports and exports totaled $710 million. Specifically, imports amounted to $272 million with an increase of 15.95% year-on-year, exhibiting the rising demand for high-quality flower products from China and the increasing openness of the Chinese market.