All the latest news from Bord Bia

THE PLANS FOR GROMÓR 2019

Building on the success of the 2018 campaign, in 2019 GroMór will continue to grow the market for gardening in Ireland. The main target audience is mature gardeners, but the aim is also to engage with 25-35 year olds, and 35-50 year olds to help the long term growth of the market. The GroMór ambassador for 2019 will be Bord Bia’s Gary Graham, well known to the public through Bloom and Supergarden.

What’s new for 2019? There will be a big emphasis on video, with ‘how to’ tips generated by garden centres, nurseries and partners, to distribute to the nearly 20,000 likes on Facebook, with a focus on getting people into garden centres and buying Irish plants. There will be opportunities for pop up nursery stands in garden centres in the two main months of activity, April and June. The focus is on local – PR tips for garden centres and nurseries, and engaging with local press and radio stations to get a good buzz going around the campaign.

There will also be an initiative to create a link between the high traffic Bloom website and the GroMór website. There will be simple GroMór gardening advice, and links back to the GroMór site for more advice and details about the campaign.

Participation by nurseries in this year’s campaign has the additional benefit of supporting the other gardening promotions that Bord Bia is running. Bord Bia has substantially increased the funding for plants in the new season of Supergarden, ensuring that plants will be the focus of the gardens, as well as drawing attention to the Quality Mark on plants. There is also further investment in the plant village at Bloom, which has been re-christened the Quality Mark Plant Village, and will also be promoting GroMór. Don’t be left out, get in touch and get involved. ✽

INCREDIBLE EDIBLES 2019

The Incredibles Edibles Healthy Eating Programme 2019 was launched recently by the Minister of State for Health Promotion, Catherine Byrne TD, in St Louise de Marillac National School in Ballyfermot.

This initiative by Agri Aware who coordinate and manage the programme is supported by Bord Bia, the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Health and Children, through the Healthy Ireland framework, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and the horticulture industry. The project now in its 11th year will see over 1,500 primary schools across Ireland learn to sow, grow and cook a whole host of seasonal Irish fruit, vegetables and herbs. For further information visit www.incredibleedibles.ie ✽

FRESH PRODUCE RETAIL MARKET GREW IN VALUE IN 2018

The fresh produce category is a key element of the total grocery market which is valued at €10.7bn with fresh produce contributing close to 15% of this value in 2018. The retail market for fresh produce was valued at €1.53bn in 2018 which was a slight increase of 0.2% on 2017. This was driven by a higher average shelf price across the whole category with overall volumes marginally back by 0.1% year on year. It is likely that last summer’s severe drought which had a major impact on the growing season had some influence on this outcome. This category subdivides into fruit, which was valued at €762m, vegetables valued at €565m and potatoes, which were valued at €207m last year.

The vegetable category was the one fresh produce category that recorded a reduction in its overall value in 2018 and was back 2.6% on the previous year, with a lower volume purchased per buyer being a key contributor. The value of the fruit category was up by 0.7% with a higher average unit price on shelf of 1.9% across the category driving this trend and resulting in a lower volume purchased of 1.2%. The value of the potato category in 2018 was up significantly by 6.3% while the volume purchased was only marginally back compared with 2017 by 0.5%. The average unit price on shelf was up by 6.9% last year. The summer drought reduced the volume of potatoes harvested last year and available to the market. ✽

THE RARE & SPECIAL PLANT FAIR

Coming up on 12 May, The Rare & Special Plant Fair was established in 2001 with the assistance of Bord Bia, to ensure that the gardening public has an opportunity to purchase rare, unusual and special plants, and to ensure that small specialist nurseries and breeders of these plants in Ireland have an opportunity to present them for sale. At the same time, the fair aims to provide an opportunity for visitors to visit a private garden that they might not otherwise visit.

The fair is an annual event, always held on the second Sunday in May. Over the years the event has grown in stature and reputation with the fair being hosted in some of Ireland’s most notable and beautiful private gardens, and more recently in public and state gardens of note. This year, Glin Castle (pictured), the ancestral home of the FitzGerald family, Knights of Glin, will play host to this special event on Sunday 12th May. www.rareandspecialplantfair.ie ✽

THE YOUNG HORTICULTURIST OF THE YEAR

Run by the Chartered Institute of Horticulture, the Young Horticulturist of the Year competition is a fantastic opportunity for horticultural students and recent graduates to test their knowledge and get the opportunity to meet with fellow horticulturalists from all over the UK and Ireland. The competition is free to enter and is open to anyone below the age of 30 on 31 July in the year of entering the competition. Bord Bia is a long time sponsor of the Ireland branch competitions and the final, which this year took place on 14 March at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.

The winner Leo Walsh, a graduate of the Teagasc College at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, will compete against the finalists from England, Scotland and Wales at the grand finale, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on 11 May. The ultimate winner of the competition wins a £2,500 travel bursary to fund horticultural related travel anywhere in the world. ✽

THE BORD BIA VALUE OF THE GARDEN MARKET STUDY 2018

Bord Bia has engaged Ipsos MRBI to track consumer activity and spend in the amenity market every two years since 2001. The objective of the survey is to provide Bord Bia with a tool to measure and track consumer spend, channel of purchase and motivation for purchase across a range of amenity products.

The amenity sector in this survey covers the following items. Outdoor and flowering plants; indoor potted plants and fresh cut flowers including foliage and wreaths; garden products including garden treatments (e.g. fertilisers, pesticides), peat/bark/soil treatment, garden accessories, BBQ equipment, garden furniture, gardening tools and equipment, garden structures.

REPORTING CONTEXT

Ireland’s population has grown by 26% since 2001. The number of households has increased by a third over the same period. The population is ageing – the number of 65+ year olds has risen by 75% over this period. Unemployment now stands at 5.4%, and is continuing to fall, albeit marginally now. New housing unit completions peaked in Ireland in 2006, but only around 19,000 private houses were completed in 2018. Supply is growing but is still behind where it needs to be to meet demand. The average age of the first time home buyer is 34, up from 29 in 2006.

Inflation (the consumer price index) averaged 0.27% in 2018. Retail sales (excluding the motor trade) were up 3.5% in the past year. Since the research began in 2001, the CPI for goods has decreased, while the price of services has increased significantly. The prices of utilities and local charges have almost doubled over this time. 2018 was a challenging year weather-wise, from snow hampering the kick off of the gardening season, to prolonged heat and drought during peak season.

MARKET SUMMARY

The amenity market is showing signs of growth since the last measure, particularly in the areas of indoor potted plants and fresh cut flowers, foliage and wreaths. The overall market has grown by 9% in value at €795m, while purchase occasions have also increased by 8% to 18.4 million.

Spend on outdoor and flowering plants has plateaued since 2016, after reporting significant increases since 2011. Herbs, fruit and vegetables for growing yourself are the only products which report a lift in purchasing occasions within the outdoor and flowering plants category since 2016. Consumer engagement in GYO products appears to be further expanding after a period of stagnation.

Trees and hedges, as well as herbaceous plants, recorded increases in spend compared with 2016. In all cases, the uplift was due to an increased spend per purchase occasion, rather than growth in occasions. Hanging baskets and pre-planted containers have made no further inroads, either in terms of occasions or value.

Nonetheless, purchasing occasions are at their highest level since measurements began in 2001. The long term trend for convenient planting solutions is further strengthened by a resurgence in popularity for indoor potted plants. Potted plants are demonstrating the greatest level of growth in both purchasing occasions and spend of all products measured.

The market for garden products is showing further growth since 2016. There are positive movements in most products. The popularity of decks, which soared during the Celtic Tiger years, seems to have waned. Spend on landscaping services is on the increase. Spend on garden makeovers or overhauls appears to be favoured over paying for a garden designer to draw up plans for a garden. Independent garden centres remain the single most important channel for amenity products; a quarter of all consumer spend, and almost half of spend on outdoor flowers and plants, is routed through garden centres. Spend on amenity products through discounters has overtaken traditional supermarkets, due to a much greater increase in purchasing occasions over the past seven years. The findings of the study will be presented to the industry over the coming months at dedicated industry information days and trade fairs. Ensure you are invited by subscribing to our horticulture news ezine at https://www.bordbia.ie/industry/ manufacturers/insight/horticultureezine/pages/ subscriptionform.aspx. ✽