An economic analysis of the production and marketing of floricultural crops in Tennessee

The primary objective of this analysis was to provide Tennessee green industry farmers with information on the production and marketing of floriculture crops. An overview of U.S. national, southern regional and Tennessee green industry production and marketing characteristics was presented to describe the general production and marketing environment in which green industry farms operate. A mail survey of Tennessee greenhouses was conducted in 1994 and the data received from 83 greenhouses was analyzed to describe specific production and marking activities among these farmers. The survey responses were stratified and compared according to greenhouse size in square feet, gross annual sales and region within Tennessee. Chi-square tests were used to determine the significance of the results.

Overall, greenhouse managers reported a total of 2.7 million square feet under greenhouse cover during the 1993 production period and 29.3 percent of managers planned to expand the size of their operations within the next two years. On average greenhouses employed 6.9 permanent employees and family members were an important source of labor among all strata of greenhouse operations.

Among all survey strata, greenhouses were most commonly constructed of double layer poly covering. Managers indicated a variety of current production technologies with larger firms generally using a wider variety of technologies to perform specific production tasks than did the smaller firms. Computerization was the most commonly reported technology adoption planned by managers within the next five years.

Retail sales accounted for the largest proportion of greenhouse market activity and, overall, the largest proportions of greenhouse advertising budgets were allocated to newspaper and radio advertising. Television was also an important advertising medium. Bedding plants contributed the largest proportion of annual sales although the sale of these plants was highly seasonal and confined primarily to the months of April and December.