News
Passion for beautiful spaces driving growth

May 8, 2012, San Jose, CA — The world market for garden products is forecast to reach US$284.5 billion by 2017, spurred by the growing importance attached to gardening, Global Industry Analysts (GIA) reports.

The report, Garden Products: A Global Strategic Business Report, delivers a comprehensive review of consumer demographic and lifestyle trends, market drivers, issues, and challenges in the wake of the global economic crisis.

The report analyzes the garden plants and seeds, lawn and garden care, garden tools and implements, garden furniture and garden accessories segments in a number of major geographic markets, including Canada, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Highlights from the report include:

• Rising income levels, aging population, growing consumer awareness and environmental concerns have heightened the zeal for aesthetic and beautifully maintained lawns and gardens, fueling demand for innovative decorative products, tools and implements for the garden.
• An increasing number of people are taking to gardening, while new house owners are invariably including garden space as an essential beautification measure. The outdoor landscaping and garden business has flourished due to the growing emphasis of outdoor spaces as extension of today’s homes. This coupled with other factors such as, changing consumer lifestyle, rising annual incomes and growing material comforts support the increased boost and investment opportunities foreseen in outdoor landscaping segment. Other correlating factors such as rising fuel costs and the convenience of utilizing backyard gardens as the perfect option for hosting barbeques, camping and a relaxation center have fueled growth in garden products market.
• Long-term growth in the gardening market is likely to be driven by an aging population and heightened global concern regarding the environment. The growing importance of gardening as a recreational activity or hobby, a zeal to develop gardens in homes as well as the desire to enhance aesthetics through beautiful and properly maintained lawns and gardens are the major factors driving growth worldwide. Increased environment consciousness, a larger number of retired people, augmented free time and the relaxing nature of gardening are driving large numbers of people to take up gardening activities, resulting in significant growth for garden products.
• Developed countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and most of the Western European nations corner most of the gardening products market, particularly in the equipment segment. Asia, including Japan, lags far behind the developed countries in the garden equipment market. Gardening as a leisure activity is mostly popular in the Western countries owing to their higher disposable income, and is only now catching up in some segments of the population in developing nations. Availability of cheap manual labour, low income levels, and small property sizes with no or limited space for maintaining gardens are the major factors constraining growth in the gardening equipment segment in developing countries.
• Consumer tastes in recent years have shifted drastically from a focus on plants and simple lawn and indoor garden accessories to the outdoors, where consumers prefer to spend most of their leisure time. Manufacturers are striving to offer customized garden products to suit every customer type. The change has spurred the lawn and garden industry to offer related accessories such as candle holders, decorative planters, garden art and tabletop fountains for the growing market of spas, patios and decks, swimming pools and grills. Keeping in line with the new trend, lawn and garden companies continue to flood the market with new products in a wide variety of colorful and up-market looks in landscape lighting, classic style pottery and decorative sprinklers in exceptional designs.
• Garden plants and seeds represents the largest product category and comprises annual and perennial plants, houseplants, flower bulbs, garden plants and a variety of seeds. Demand for potted plants is constantly increasing throughout the world. Europe and the US claim the highest share of global consumption. Demand for nursery products is also growing with increased competition in the global markets.
• Garden accessories are designed to reflect the style and cultural practices of various regions over the world. The segment includes decorative products such as pots, candle holders, fountains, decorative sprinklers, and other decorative items. This segment is projected to show a strong growth rate of 7.2 per cent between now and 2017.
• Europe corners the single largest share of the global garden products market. In countries such as Portugal and Greece, the market is in the early stages of development, while in others, such as Germany and the Netherlands, it is quite healthy and garden decoration articles are considerable expenditures.
• The Asia-Pacific, backed by rising disposable incomes and untapped potential in developing markets such as China, Australia, Philippines and Taiwan, is slated to race ahead at a growth rate of eight per cent over the next five years.

For more information  or to purchase the report, visit www.strategyr.com.