WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT TO WISCONSIN:
Wisconsin companies offering goods and services to greenhouse plant and flower growers may find opportunities in the Canadian market.
The rise in remote work since the pandemic has been a boon to another industry: floriculture.
As more people have been working at home, many have brightened their workspaces with the addition of flowers and houseplants.
In Canada, greenhouse floriculture contributed more than $1.5 billion to the economy in 2019—even before the pandemic forced people to stay home more, according to Flowers Canada Growers, the industry’s trade association.
The organization says greenhouse-grown plants are Canada’s sixth largest crop and tenth largest agricultural product, overall.
Mordor Intelligence says there were 1,840 nurseries nationwide in 2021, more than 1,500 greenhouses that specialize in producing certain types of flowers, and more than 14,000 employees in the floriculture industry.
Mordor projects that Canada’s ornamental horticulture market will see a compound annual growth rate of 6.2% between 2018 and 2028.
In 2022, Canada exported about $912 million in nursery and floriculture products to the U.S.—the largest destination for Canadian exports. Other top destinations included Panama ($2.2 million), Curaçao ($435,000), Aruba ($296,000), and Venezuela ($259,000). Meanwhile, nearly half of the $710 million in greenhouse plants and flowers that were imported into Canada in 2022 came from the U.S.
Worldwide, revenue from the indoor plant market totaled more than $2 billion in 2022, according to Growth Market Reports, and it is expected to top $3 billion by 2031 as workers return to their offices and want to spruce them up.
Spider plants, snake plants, rubber plants, peace lilies, English ivy, and ferns are among the indoor plants that are credited with purifying the air and boosting oxygen levels, in addition to brightening indoor spaces.
