Michigan maintained its third place national ranking in value of wholesale sales of floriculture products in 2011, behind California and Florida.
Reports from Michigan's 584 commercial growers ($10K or more in gross sales) showed an estimated wholesale value of $376.1 million for all surveyed floriculture crops, down 8 % from last year. This estimate includes summarized sales data as reported by growers with $100K or more in sales plus a calculated wholesale value of sales for operations with sales from $10K to $99,999.
Michigan Floriculture Sales Maintains Rank As Third Nationally
The leading crop category breakdowns for Michigan operations with more than $100K in sales were:
- First, annual bedding/garden plants with $203.5 million in sales.
- Second, propagative materials with $68.0 million in sales.
- Third, herbaceous perennial plants with $57.1 million in sales.
- Fourth, potted flowering plants with $27.1 million in sales.
Michigan leads the nation in value of sales for 10 floriculture crops:
- Impatiens (flats) with 2.0 million flats sold, valued at $14.1million.
- Begonia Hanging Baskets with 502,000 baskets sold, valued at $3.7 million.
- Geranium Hanging Baskets (cuttings) with 802,000 baskets sold, valued at $5.7 million.
- Impatiens New Guinea Hanging Baskets with 483,000 sold, valued at $3.2 million.
- Impatiens Other Hanging Baskets with 505,000 sold, valued at $3.0 million.
- Petunias Hanging Baskets with 1.2 million baskets sold, valued at $7.2 million.
- Potted Easter Lillies with 1.0 million pots sold, valued at $4.4 million.
- Potted Geraniums (seed) with 17.3 million pots sold, valued at $15.4 million.
- Potted Petunias with 3.4 million pots sold, valued at $6.2 million.
Total covered area for all operations in the state was 48.7 million square feet. This includes both rigid and film plastic greenhouses, glass greenhouses, shade, and temporary cover. Only California and Florida had more total cover.
The 2011 wholesale value of floriculture crops is down 2% from the revised 2010 valuation. The total crop value at wholesale for the 15-State program for all growers with $10,000 or more in sales is estimated at $4.08 billion for 2011, compared with $4.15 billion for 2010. California continues to be the leading state with crops valued at $1.01 billion, down slightly from the 2010 value.
Florida, the next largest producer is up 1 % from the prior year to $835 million in wholesale value. These two states account for 45 % of the 15-State total value. For 2011, the top 5 states are California, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and North Carolina, which account for $2.73 billion, or 67%, of the 15-State total value.
Number of Producers: The number of producers for 2011, at 5,763, is down 7% in the 15 States compared with the revised 2010 count of 6,164.
Area Used for Production: In the 15-State program, total covered area for floriculture crop production was 712 million square feet, down 2% from the 2010 revised area of 730 million square feet.
Peak Hired Workers: The average peak number of hired workers employed on operations in the 15-State program in 2011 is 18.7. A total of 4,382 operations hired workers during 2011. Overall, 76% of operations used some hired labor during 2011, down 3 percentage points from 2010.