Floriculture.

Floriculture is the art and technique of growing plants to obtain flowers and marketing them in flower shops and nurseries. Two fundamental types of farms can be established, private and commercial. The first, associated with gardening, aims to cultivate flowering plants for their beauty and emotional satisfaction and is carried out by hobbyists to enthusiastic collectors who have specialized in a species or groups of plant species. Commercial floriculture, on the other hand, refers to the cultivation of plants to obtain flowers that pursue a profit objective. Their products may be intended for ornamentation, industry or medicine and involve other closely related commercial activities, such as the production of seeds, bulbs and an infinite number of essential elements for this intensive activity, ranging from fertilizers and agrochemicals (insecticides, fungicides and herbicides to the pots and substrates for cultivation.

The international cut flower market is fundamentally focused on three consumer markets: the United States, the European Union and Japan, with a turnover value of 955, 6,500 and 3.8 billion euros respectively. Each of these markets produces a high percentage of its cut flower demand, but in addition, they import a considerable amount from a variety of countries. Thus, the United States imports 59% of its requirements, the EU 10% and Japan only 6%. The main suppliers to the US market are Colombia, Ecuador and the Netherlands. For the EU, the main suppliers are Kenya, Israel and Colombia and for the Japanese market, Thailand, Colombia and the Netherlands. The most prominent species in international markets are roses, carnations, chrysanthemums and several species of bulbous plants, such as tulips and lilies. The Netherlands constitutes the most important concentrator market in the world and accounts for more than 50 percent of the total imports and 85 percent of the exports of flowers in the European Union.

The cause of the sustained growth of the cut flower market in recent decades is, basically, the change in the consumption patterns of the population with medium and high incomes, who use this product as a decorative element of the home, business gifts and for personal enjoyment. One of the consequences of the growth of the cut flower markets is the large investment that many companies and institutions make to obtain new varieties of flowers, either through classical genetic improvement or through sophisticated genetic engineering techniques.