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Publication #FE675

Economic Impacts of the Florida Environmental Horticultural Industry in 20051

Alan W. Hodges and John J. Haydu2

The following is the Executive Summary of a much larger report, which is only available in pdf format. To access the complete report, please click here or go to (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FE/FE67500.pdf).

Executive Summary

The economic impacts of the environmental horticulture industry in Florida in 2005 were evaluated and compared with results from previous studies done for 1997 and 2000. Telephone and internet surveys were conducted with over 800 industry firms, including wholesale nurseries, landscape services, and horticultural retailers.

Based on expanded survey results and other secondary data, total industry sales in 2005 were estimated at $15.24 billion (Bn). Total industry output amounted to $10.39 Bn, with $3.01 Bn for wholesale nurseries, $5.25 Bn for landscape services, and $2.13 Bn for horticultural retailers, which reflects the average gross margin on retail sales. Direct employment in the industry was 190,000 full-time jobs, plus nearly 104,000 temporary, part-time, or seasonal jobs.

Economic impacts were estimated with multipliers from a regional input-output model for Florida developed using the Implan software. Multiplier effects capture activity in other sectors of the Florida economy in the industry supply chain (indirect effects) and spending by employee households (induced impacts). Total employment impacts were 319,000 full-time and part-time/seasonal jobs, including 24,000 jobs created in other sectors of the Florida economy. Total value added impacts of $8.65 Bn included $5.19 Bn in labor income for employee wages, salaries, and business owner (proprietor) income. Fiscal impacts included $549 million (Mn) in indirect business taxes paid to local, state, and federal governments. Since the previous study for the year 2000, total employment impacts increased by 131,000 jobs, or an average annual compound rate of 11.1 percent, while output impacts increased by $2.4 Bn, or 4.2 percent annually.

Estimates of industry sales, employment, and economic impacts were developed separately for all 67 Florida counties and 9 regions anchored by the major metropolitan areas, based on their share of total statewide direct employment. Total employment impacts were highest in the counties of Miami-Dade (40,837 jobs), Palm Beach (23,776), Orange (21,733), Hillsborough (20,410), Broward (18,157), Duval (11,768), Volusia (10,454), Pinellas (10,208), Lee (10,162), Lake (9,814), Polk (9,532), Collier (9,030), and Seminole (9,031). Regional employment impacts were highest in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale region (95,202 jobs), followed by Orlando (86,157), Tampa-St. Petersburg (37,711), Sarasota-Bradenton (35,541), Jacksonville (22,580), Tallahassee (13,515), Gainesville (12,315), Pensacola (11,839), and Panama City (3,713).

Nursery growers reported managing a total area of 82,440 acres in container, field, and greenhouse production systems. About $1.27 Bn (42%) in nursery sales were to markets outside the state, including states in the southeast (14%), northeast (12%), midwest (8%), and west (6%), and foreign countries (2%). The most important plant products were shrubs, representing $578 Mn, or 19 percent of sales, followed by tropical foliage ($437 Mn, 17%), deciduous trees ($389 Mn, 15%), turfgrass ($307 Mn, 10%), liners ($297 Mn, 10%), potted flowering plants ($281 Mn, 9%) and palms ($220 Mn, 7%). Deciduous, evergreen and flowering trees together represented $670 Mn, or 22 percent of nursery sales. Florida native plants represented about 11 percent of nursery sales. In the landscape services sector, 47 percent of sales were for landscape installation, 30 percent for landscape maintenance, 10 percent for design (landscape architecture), and 14 percent for other services. In the horticultural retailing sector, 40 percent of sales were for live plants, 31 percent for horticultural supplies, 11 percent for hard goods, and 19 percent for miscellaneous other goods.

Finally, the study evaluated the impacts on the horticulture industry from eight named hurricanes that struck Florida during 2004 and 2005. Some 79 percent of surveyed firms were adversely impacted by at least one hurricane. Total damages and losses due to hurricanes were estimated at $2.12 billion, including product (crop) losses of $1.05 Bn, structural damages of $465 Mn, and cleanup costs of $605 Mn. Product losses of at least $100,000 were sustained by 22 percent of firms, while structural damages and cleanup costs were suffered by 12 percent and 8 percent of firms, respectively. Nearly half (48%) of the firms had their businesses interrupted for three weeks or more by the hurricanes.

Acknowledgments

This research project was sponsored by the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association (FNGLA), Orlando, Florida, under the leadership of Ben Bolusky, Executive Vice President, and with the support of FNGLA member chapters: Action Chapter, Central East Coast Chapter, Coastal Springs Chapter, Frontrunners Chapter, Highlands Heartland Chapter, Lake Region Chapter, Miami-Dade Chapter, Royal Palm Chapter, and Treasure Coast Chapter. Financial support was also provided by Tampa Bay Wholesale Growers, AgFirst/Farm Credit Bank and Farm Credit Associations of Florida. The development of internet surveys was assisted by Mohammad Rahmani (UF/IFAS). The telephone surveys were supervised by Chris McCarty and Scott Richards of the University of Florida, Bureau of Economic and Business Research. Critical reviews of this report were provided by David Mulkey and Tom Stevens (UF/IFAS). Finally, the estimates of industry values developed in this report were made possible by the hundreds of professional managers in the Florida Green industry who responded to the internet and telephone surveys.

Footnotes

1.

This is EDIS document FE675, a publication of the Food and Resource Economics Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Published October 2006. Reviewed November 2009. Please visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Alan W. Hodges, Associate In, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL; and John J. Haydu, Professor, Food and Resource Economics Department, Mid-Florida Research and Education Center, Apopka, FL, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

The use of trade names in this publication is solely for the purpose of providing specific information. UF/IFAS does not guarantee or warranty the products named, and references to them in this publication does not signify our approval to the exclusion of other products of suitable composition.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.