Dutch plant and flower exports to Germany increased by nearly 10% in October, which has brought the average growth during the first ten months of the year to 6.4%, leading to a total € 1.4 billion export value to Germany. This increase accounts for 60% of the total growth of the Dutch plant and flower exports in 2016 and it means that the market share of Germany expanded to 29.6%.
Both wholesaler Henny Star and Gerrit Groot of FleuraMetz say that the increase is a consequence of the higher purchasing prices in Germany, rather than of higher volumes. “The market is changing; more and more florists buy online, they purchase smaller quantities, but order more frequently. Digital techniques are making a broader assortment visible and available, but this doesn’t necessarily lead to a market increase. However, it does lead to a changing role for the wholesaler.”
Rouble, pound and dollar
The export value of flowers and plants from the Netherlands to Russia continues to decrease because of the depreciation of the rouble. There’s no sign that this situation will improve any time soon. A few months ago, Russia no longer appeared in the list of top-10 export destinations for Dutch plants and flowers.
Of the countries left in the list, England is the only one with a decreasing Dutch export value. In 2015, the turnover of exports to England still reached a record € 925 million, but the trend was broken by the end of last spring.
The depreciation of the British pound after Brexit reinforced the decrease. Last October, exports were 11% lower than at the same time last year, and the total difference up to October is -3%.
Export explosion
The effects of the recent election results on the exchange rate of the dollar and the trade relationships with the United States of America, are hard to predict according to exporters. Exports to America, just like those to England, broke all records in 2015, with an explosion of 44%, reaching a total value of € 88 million for cut flowers. This year, the growth in this segment has been 13% up to October and in a top-10 list for cut flowers, America would be in the 8th position.
Belgium
Expressed in percentages, the Belgian market has grown the most compared to last year. Our southern neighbour purchased 11% more in value, leading to a total value of € 215 million. Expressed in euros, this amount is similar to the decrease of the English market.
The export of finished plant and flower products to Poland showed an increase of 8%, reaching a total value of € 165 million.
Dutch plant and flower wholesalers’ export values went up during all the months of 2016, apart from in January. The increase has been around 3% from last spring and the average up to October is 3.1%. Expressed in euros, the export value up to October is 4.9 billion.
Interestingly, the increase of plant exports from the Netherlands has been structurally higher than flower exports during the first ten months of this year; plant exports went up by 5%, reaching a total of € 1.9 billion. The increase for flower exports up to October was 2%, reaching a total of € 3 billion. This is illustrated by the export figures published by the VGB, which were based on the data provided by Floridata.
Recovery
Last year, the export value of potted plants and garden plants went down by 2%, leading to a total of € 2.1 billion. However, until October this year, it has gone up by 4.5% to around € 1.9 billion in total.
The recovery of the plant market began about a year ago and seems to slow down now. The export turnover decreased last September, but in October it went up by just under 1% to a total of € 149 million.
During the last three months, the flower segment has been showing export turnover increases of 8.7%, 2.8% and 3.6% respectively. “The number of stems is more or less the same though; the value increase is a consequence of the higher prices”, says wholesaler Henny Star. In October last year, the average increase up to then was at 5.6%. At that time, the flower segment was doing better than the plant segment, but this year it seems to be the other way around.
Caption: The table shows the top-10 destinations for plant and flower exports from the Netherlands, expressed in euros export value up to and including October 2016. (source: Floridata)
