Plants and trees from Alicante are prospering all over the world, and that’s what allows nurseries in the state. surviving the perfect storm that caused rising costs and the recession into which the national market plunged. The exports of the ornamental horticulture sector have increased by 80% in the last ten years, driven by a dynamic based on product quality and good crop yields. Despite everything, the outlook is both inflation and Cuts announced in Tajo-Segura transfermay jeopardize the survival of some companies.
The ornamental horticulture industry is mistakenly seen as the poor brother of agriculture. However, the yield from production and the value of exports are, in most cases, higher than the rest of the agricultural sectors. In the last 10 years, after Germany, the country that increased the sales of flowers, plants and trees abroad the most was Spain.which makes it the country with the greatest growth potential at European level.
But if the data at the national level is positive, the data in Alicante prefecture is even more positive. And this, In 2021 alone, exports reached 62.3 million euros, compared to 39.5 in the previous year.. This increase of more than 50% has placed it in second place in the national ranking, behind only the state of Valencia. The sales of Alicante nurseries abroad actually represent 11% of Spain’s total exports, showing the weight of companies in this region.
forty countries
Considering that exports are of fundamental importance for the province’s sapling activity, these data gain even more notoriety. 85% of the flowers, plants and trees grown cross borders and reach more than 40 countries., mainly from the European Union such as France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Belgium. But markets like Japan, China, South Africa or the United Arab Emirates are becoming more and more important.
Alicante nurseries specialize in the production and recovery of Mediterranean plants and trees, such as olive or palm trees., to meet the demands of large retail chains and gardeners as well as wholesale distributors, among others. Manufacturers invest heavily in logistics, in order to reach all parts of the world as quickly as possible, and also in search of new formats. Companies have improved qualifications and training by empowering their human teams to deliver the best products.
Most of the provincial sector is integrated into the Association of Nursery Crops Producers (VAME), whose activities are focused on increasing the competitiveness of this association, organizing, among other things, the group participation of its members in fairs. World. It also conducts direct and reverse business missions to seek new technologies and markets to position its partners’ products.
As can be seen, a major internationalization effort has helped nursery growers face a situation that is more than complex during this period. Paco Agulló, head of VAME, also owner of Viveros Planta Viva, explains that the industry is experiencing a strong rise after the worst moments of the pandemic, “because many people choose to treat them with plants or improve their gardens by staying at home and not being able to go out.. This is the reason for the strong increase in exports last year.”
However, the situation has tended to normalize this year with a stagnating domestic market and yes, foreign sales, which continue to grow but at a lower rate, around 7%. According to Agulló, “We can’t complain about sales, but the truth is that the costs have gone up a lot. Phytosanitary products and fertilizers have doubled in price before they go any further, while diesel and plastics are much more expensive.». The problem, he adds, is that these increases had no effect on factories, even remotely, “because—to make it clear—we would have lost our competitiveness in international markets and remained unsellable.”
Transfer
Another worrying issue are the constantly announced cuts for shipments from the Tajo-Segura transfer, on which nurseries at Camp d’Elx and Vega Baja are heavily dependent. «If the flow goes down, we’re going to have to cut fields and a lot.and that will put the viability of many companies at risk.” And whether that happens or not, nurseries are subject to great uncertainty, “because — he adds — we don’t know if we’re going to be planting less in 2023. The unfortunate thing is that all of this goes through political wars.”
José Luis Maciá from Viveros Ferriol puts it in similar terms: “We sell more or less the normal one, but at much higher costs because everything that goes through, from raw materials to shipping, has increased in the hands of the construction site”. In this sense, he underlines that exports help the sector the most, given that “sales at the national level have little weight in our business”. He agrees with Paco Agulló that the water problem worries them greatly. «We don’t know if we can add it.“And not only if the flow is reduced, but also because the desalinated water alternative costs three times more,” he warns.
Irineo López of Viveros Iris, after the contention caused by the pandemic, said, “We can work halfway, but we are faced with the cost problem that forces us to raise prices. They continue to buy from us now, but we’ll see what happens in the future.”
Alfredo Cano from Vivero Florales Alicante states that the increase in costs has been resolved by the increasing prices in recent years, which has helped them retain their customers. But the fear lies in what might happen from now on,” with skyrocketing inflation and rising mortgage prices, because our product is not necessary». Regarding water, he explains, they have their own reservoir systems that allow them to make the most of their water resources when appropriate.
The industry seeks the support of the Administration to continue expanding its international markets
The nursery sector wants to continue to expand its presence in international markets and seeks the support of the Administration for this. As the national federation Fpex explains, good results in foreign trade have been achieved without any support measures, despite current strong competition from both third countries and other producer states of the European Union. In this sense, it is one of the main priorities of the sector to include the largest number of companies in the export activity with the support of the Administration, which facilitates the dissemination of the Spanish offer, and is also the key to its maintenance and future development.
Another issue that worries babysitters is the difficulty of finding labor. This is highlighted by Irineo López of Viveros Iris: “It is a fact that there is a shortage of people to work in agriculture in general and in our industry in particular. And we’re talking not just about basic craftsmanship, but also about engineers we couldn’t find. The reason why this situation arises, he adds, is mainly, “agriculture is not given much credit, especially because it involves physical work. But the paradox is that gyms are getting more and more crowded, so we don’t see the logic in this.