Oral Presentation Hydroponic Farmers Federation Conference 2018

The Australian Ornamental Nursery Scene (#10)

Paul Boland 1
  1. Ball Horticultural Australia, Keysborough, VIC, Australia

The Australian Nursery Industry has some peculiarities due to 3 main factors:

                *Market size and spread

                *Quarantine restrictions

                *Market dominance by one major player

Both the continental US and European markets cover a landmass of roughly similar size to Australia.  The US has a population of nearly 350 million and Europe around 750 million making our 25 million pale into insignificance.

Despite this, the Australian market is healthy and showing signs of growth.  There is rationalisation of the industry with a few of the bigger businesses showing extraordinary growth.  Businesses are investing in land, facilities and new equipment.

Nowhere else in the world do we see the dominance seen by one player as we do with Bunnings in the Australian market. How is this shaping our industry and what can we expect in the future?