CONSUMPTION PREFERENCES AND TRENDS 38

The quality expected by European consumers is generally extremely high. They expect not only freshness at the moment of purchase, but also that flowers open up and have a long vase life. Although the price is not the main criterion, it is of major importance, particularly in these days of stagnant economies.

Top quality flowers and plants in fashionable colours and shapes are generally priced higher than the average crop. The traditional primary colours of red, yellow, white, and blue always enjoy a certain demand, but the ever-changing fashions in interior decor set the trends.

Consumer preferences and patterns can differ strongly between EU countries and even within countries by geographical region and income strata. Affluent people buy more bouquets with "special" flowers and are generally more interested in social and environmental aspects.

Consumers are very interested in variation in personal gifts. They like to be surprised. Growers play into this trend by continuously introducing new varieties and by offering value added products (pots, vases, hand-made items, packaging). Nevertheless, there is an increased competition from other gift articles, which has decreased the relative importance of flowers as gifts.

The decoration of homes and gardens is ever more important for many European citizens. People tend to go out less and stay at home more, making them increasingly aware of ways in which they might make their homes more comfortable and reassuring. This places more emphasis on home and garden decoration, having a favourable influence on plant consumption. This trend is also illustrated by the popularity of numerous TV programmes on gardening.

Growing interest in social and environmental aspects

The growing quality awareness among consumers not only concerns product technical quality. There is also an increasing interest in the way products have been produced. Although consumers generally do not have much knowledge of the commercial floricultural production, they expect a flower or plant to be produced in a sustainable manner, meaning with decent labour conditions and environmentally friendly. They assume that the plants and flowers they buy have been cultivated using the smallest

39 possible amounts of crop protection agents, energy and fertilisers and generating the least possible waste.

A study by the Dutch Commodity Board for Horticulture concluded that when consumers are given the choice between environmental or social, they find the environmental aspect of sustainability more important than the social aspect. To be more precise, minimal use of energy, pest management resources and fertiliser or biologically grown comes to mind when consumers think of environmentally friendly grown flowers and plants.

On the other hand, studies also indicate that there is not much public awareness of the dangers to sustainability associated with cut flowers, simply because people do not eat flowers. A lot of people do not know why they should buy sustainable flowers and plants, which indicates a lack of information regarding these kinds of products.

Lately, sustainability aspects are also communicated to consumers by means of information about the origin of the product. In UK supermarkets, such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer, a ‘By Air’ label is printed on the product, indicating that the products have been transported by air. The objective is to reduce the number of air-freighted goods sold in store and thereby contributing to its emissions reduction strategy. Many supermarkets (in the UK, but also in other EU countries) indicate if a product is locally produced by printing, for instance, a small national flag on the label. This ‘local-to-local’ trend is particularly strong in the UK gardening market.

Supermarkets are aware that ‘By Air’ and ‘local produce’ labels do not always correctly reflect the real environmental impact of a product. They are therefore still working on other ways to indicate the product’s carbon footprint. In the UK, Tesco is developing a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measure of the carbon footprint of all products sold at Tesco. Others involved in similar schemes are Marks & Spencer, and Coop in Switzerland with Cimatop.

Importance of public procurement policies

Government institutions and medium to large-sized enterprises, the so-called institutional market, are important buyers of plants, shrubs, trees and even cut flowers. More and more, governments in Europe oblige national and local authorities to buy sustainable products. These public procurement policies are having a significant impact in the ornamental industry.

The French government, for instance, has adopted the ‘Grenelle law’ on sustainable agriculture. Among a wide set of measures covering all economic fields, two directly impact the ornamental industry. Firstly, by 2012 all pesticides considered worrying will see their approval withdrawn. Secondly, within the same timeframe 50% of farms should have embarked on environmental certification, with three levels up to the governmental “High Environmental Value” (HVE) certification. The scheme covers biodiversity, phytosanitary usage, fertiliser and water management and energy consumption. Discussions are being held to see how, and to which level, existing schemes like MPS will be benchmarked.

Another positive example of the influence of public procurement policies can be found in the city of Mainz, Germany. Initiated by a tender of the Department of Environment of the municipality of Mainz many local florists engaged themselves with the issue of fair flower production and responsible sourcing. Mainz is now one of the strongest FLP-supporting cities of Germany.

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