Overview of the Dynamic Role of Specialty Cut Flowers in the International Cut Flower Market

Abstract

The global cut flower industry has faced serious challenges over the years, but still remains an important sector of agriculture. Floriculture businesses seek new, innovative trends and niches to help increase product sales. Specialty cut flower (SCF) production has increased in the past 20 years in the US, Australia, Africa, and Europe. SCF production and sales could increase further if these new products were supported by dynamic marketing campaigns that focus on their strengths compared to the traditional cut flowers (TCF) such as roses, carnations, gerberas, and chrysanthemums. The major strength of SCF is the eco-friendly profile, which is associated to low CO2 footprints and environmental outputs. This contrasts TCF cultivation, which is associated to high energy inputs, especially at the traditional production centres (e.g., The Netherlands). It is suggested that environmental legislations, production costs, and customer demand for eco-friendly products will positively affect future SCF cultivation and sale.

Evolving Consumption Trends, Marketing Strategies, and Governance Settings in Ornamental Horticulture: A Grey Literature Review

“…To that end, specific quality attributes can be valorized, as, for example: the selection of native species and traditional varieties (also with reference to the valorization of underutilized or neglected landraces); the adoption of organic production methods and sustainable processing techniques; the valorization of both multifunctional species, e.g., bee-friendly wildflowers, edible flowers, dwarf vegetable, herbs, and principles of flower and plant design and arrangement [11,15,28,55,81,107].…”

“…Horticulturae 2022, 8, 234 2 of 28 From a global perspective, Europe represents one of the main markets for ornamentals, and it is expected to register, over the next decade, one of the highest performances of growth of both production and consumption, in line with the development of other mature producer countries, such as China, Japan, and North America [5,6,9].…”

“…The seizing of new opportunities for the sustainable development of the European ornamental sector requires an increase in efforts from both private and public stakeholders. In other words, the enhancement and adaption of existing marketing strategies and governance settings appear essential to face the competition and also favor the realization of winwin approaches among different countries and stakeholders [10,12,[27][28][29][30][31][32]. On this basis, the industry shows a gap in the capacity of prediction, planning, and coordination of relevant actors, thus evidencing a need for improving their knowledge and practices [25,33,34].…”

Preharvest Spraying of CaCl2 Alleviates the Scape Bending of Gerbera ‘Harmony’ Flowers by Strengthening the Pectin Crosslinks through Ca2+ Bonds

“…Cut gerberas are one of the most popular cut flowers in the global flower market because of their colorful shiny ray florets, variable shapes, and colors [1]. However, consumers often experience a short vase life under room conditions [2].…”

Towards feasibility and sustainability of chrysanthemum cut flowers farming: Evidence from Pasuruan Regency, Indonesia

“…Floriculture plants are one of the horticultural commodities that have great potential to be developed as an effort to grow the regional and national economy. Flower plants have become a global agricultural business venture, relying on innovative trends and niches to help increase product sales (Darras, 2021) such as roses, carnations, gerberas, and chrysanthemums. Of the various types of floriculture plants that exist, chrysanthemum has good agribusiness prospects and provides high economic opportunities.…”