The Blooming Nursery Industry
Why has the Australian nursery industry grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic?
The first case of novel coronavirus in Australia was reported in Victoria on 25 January 2020.
Since then, at the time of writing, the city has undergone six lockdowns occurring between May 2020 and October 2021.
By the time Melbourne’s current lockdown lifts at the end of October it will have spent more than 250 days in lockdown – 45% of the time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared on 12 March 2020.
With strict stay-at-home orders and travel limits, how have people managed their wellbeing during such unprecedented times of stress and uncertainty?
The answer is indoor plants.
Lots of indoor plants.
According to the latest Nursery Industry Statistics survey, Australians bought more indoor plants than ever with the industry reporting a strong period of growth over the past 18 months.
The survey revealed over 2.2 billion plants were produced and sold in Australia from 2019 and 2020 at a value of 2.6 billion dollars.
This is an increase from 2.4 billion dollars the previous year with indoor plants largely fuelling consumer demand.
In an article for the ABC in May 2021, nursery industry owners expressed while the plant industry has been rapidly growing in popularity for the past five years, COVID-19 has “turbocharged this growth”.
Nursery owner Graeme Brindley, who is located in New South Wales, told the ABC that sales in the past 12 months have been unlike anything he’s ever seen.
“In the past five years that trend has come back and there is a whole new wave of people collecting plants again and getting right into it.
"It's particularly been with younger people, which is great to see."
Source: Mark Burkhalter
Source: Mark Burkhalter
Source: Mark Bulkhalter
Source: Mark Bulkhalter
And it’s a similar sentiment in Victoria too.
Fitzroy Nursery manager Dylan Hewlett explains rising sales have “almost predominantly been responsible in the under 35 or maybe under 40s”.
“But still, it's definitely been driven by a younger demographic.”
Mr Hewlett also says his business was forced to adapt to online shopping to maintain business performance when the Coronavirus hit Australia.
“Well, we all had to learn how to be online experts pretty quickly. We pretty much went from having no online presence to establishing you know, a complete store online. At first, it didn't do well. But by the end of lockdown, we were actually operating pretty much as we would have been if we were open.”
Findings from an IBIS report ‘Nursery Production in Australia’ produced in June 2021 declared the nursery industry was “blooming” and that “the outbreak of COVID-19 has prompted industry demand and revenue to flourish.”
But what exactly does ‘blooming’ look like?
The IBIS report shows that DIY projects and the rise of remote working have boosted demand for indoor garden supplies.
The Nursery Production industry's revenue has fluctuated over the past five years but experienced a 5.88 per cent increase from 2019 to 2020.
For context, the previous revenue growth for 2018 to 2019 was only 0.52 per cent!
Demand for garden supplies retailing also spiked, mirroring revenue growth for the same time period.
Source: Lushgreengang instagram
Source: Lushgreengang instagram
So why did Covid cause such a surge in indoor plant popularity?
From a business perspective, Mr Hewlett believes three areas of expansion were identified in his store during each lockdown.
“There was actually three waves of growth really, the first wave was because they've had to work from home, people started to set up and decorate their home office.
“The second wave was probably a wave of people looking outside and looking at their gardens for the first time, in a long time. And so then there was a second wave of DIY, landscapers. And for the third wave, there was already a bit of an undercurrent of the growth in the indoor plants was the more collectible plants.
“But during lockdown, the collectible market actually doubled or even tripled. And part of that we believe was some short-sighted government stimulus. We did notice a massive increase in people drawing on their super to spend on collectible plants.”
And from a more emotionally-driven angle, it’s clear people wanted to enjoy the natural benefits of plants and simply bring the outside in.
21-year-old hospitality worker Domi Souter first became interested in indoor plants when she moved out of college into her own sharehouse.
Miss Souter says she has noticed an increase from her peers towards horticulture-based hobbies.
“I think for a lot of people my age, you're not necessarily in the position where you can have like a dog or a cat or you know, a pet or something like that. So I think there was a definite attraction in having something to do with plants. You can put a lot of time and energy into plants when you are in the mood. "
Source: Ceyda Ciftci (Unsplash)
Source: Ceyda Ciftci (Unsplash)
Source: Prudence Earl (Unsplash)
Source: Prudence Earl (Unsplash)
The IBIS report also indicates import and export numbers in 2020 began to return to previous levels.
While not quite as high as past years, the pandemic aided in steadily reversing a decreasing trend.
The nursery industry in Australia proved itself as a sturdy sector despite experiencing a climate of global economic carnage.
Miss Souter also says people are eager to brighten their moods with greenery, which is reflective of biophilic behaviour.
Biophilia is defined as the "hypothetical human tendency to interact or be closely associated with other forms of life in nature."
Miss Souter adds, “there's a large benefit in having something to care for, particularly in a time when you don't have a routine, it's really worthwhile because you do have to sort of be productive in the sense that you're keeping things alive."
“But that spurs you on to be more productive in other areas of your life, because you've already got up and you've watered your plants. So why don't you go clean your room at the same time? Or why don’t you know, do more with it, which I think is really worthwhile, particularly in lockdown.”
And Mr Hewlett is in agreement with this perspective.
“If you’re forced to work from home, you want to make your surroundings as accommodating as possible. And even bringing in two or three plants into a room makes a massive difference to create a feeling of the outside," he says.
“People seem to be craving a connection to nature. And I think that's what's really the underlying factor that drives this increase in indoor plants.”
Updated figures on the Nursery Industry Statistics are expected in March next year.
For more information on how to care for indoor greenery, Fitzroy Nursery features helpful guides to ensure healthy and long-lasting plants.
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