Innovative Strategies, Blossoming Variety: As the national economy rises, along with the diversification of consumer channels such as fresh e-commerce, live-streaming, and new trends like subscription flower services, flowers are gradually transitioning from seasonal gifts to daily household items, driving new growth for the floral industry. In 2023, the flower retail market reached a total scale of 216.58 billion yuan, with physical flower shops accounting for 98.65 billion yuan and the online flower retail market making up 117.93 billion yuan, or 54.5% of the total. Since 2024, cities like Chongqing, Xi’an, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang have seen flower sales growth exceeding 50%.
Dynamic Development: Current Flower Production Trends
Yunnan, located in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, benefits from a mild climate year-round, ideal for flower cultivation. With 350,000 acres of fresh-cut flower planting area, it produces more than 50% of China’s fresh flowers, amounting to 17.72 billion stems annually. It has become one of the world’s leading flower production bases, alongside Colombia, Ecuador, and Kenya. In 2022, Yunnan’s flower planting area reached 1.94 million acres, with a production value of 113.26 billion yuan, a 9.51% increase from the previous year. Flower exports in 2023 totaled $93 million, representing 34% of the national market share, primarily shipped to Southeast Asia.
The Flower Sales Model Upgrades
The flower industry is evolving to meet consumer demand, becoming a key driver of poverty alleviation and income growth. The primary cold chain logistics models in the flower industry are:
- Wholesale Market-Centered Model: “China’s flowers look to Yunnan; Yunnan’s flowers look to Dou Nan.” Dou Nan Flower Market, Asia’s largest flower trading market, handled 11 billion stems in 2022, with a transaction value of 12.15 billion yuan. The market is responsible for 70% of China’s fresh-cut flowers, with more than 80% of flowers sent across the country or exported using cold-chain transportation.
- Flower Auction Center Model: At the Kunming International Flower Auction Trading Center, flowers are supplied by individual growers, cooperatives, and companies. Flowers are auctioned based on quality, and after sales, they are immediately shipped via cold chain.
- E-commerce Platform Model: E-commerce and live-streaming platforms buy flowers directly from farms or wholesale markets and deliver them via cold chain to consumers.
Ensuring Freshness: Post-Harvest Preservation & Cold Chain Logistics
Fresh flowers, as perishable goods, require stringent cold chain logistics to maintain their freshness. The cold chain covers all post-harvest processes including pre-cooling, processing, packaging, and storage, ensuring flowers maintain their best quality during transportation.
Cold Chain’s Role in Post-Harvest Management: After harvest, flowers undergo basic processing such as cutting, wrapping, and cooling before being stored in cold storage to minimize respiration. Temperature requirements vary by flower type, with ranges between -5°C and 15°C, depending on the flower’s origin. For example, Yunnan’s largest logistics center, “Yunhua,” has a 3,010-square-meter cold storage space and handles 60% of the province’s flower exports.
Cold Chain Transportation: Cold chain logistics for Yunnan’s flowers has rapidly expanded, with multiple transport modes including air, rail, and road. In addition to national logistics, international cold chain routes are also operational to Southeast Asia, helping maintain quality during long-distance transport.
Learning from International Best Practices: The Netherlands’ “Flower Flow”
The Netherlands, known as the “Flower Kingdom,” is the world’s largest exporter of flowers, producing 70% of the world’s flowers, with a highly specialized, efficient, and technologically advanced industry. The country excels in research and innovation, specializing in the breeding of new flower varieties and the automation of flower cultivation in greenhouses.
Cold Chain Logistics in the Netherlands: The Netherlands has a seamless cold chain logistics system, from production to auction, utilizing refrigerated containers and advanced monitoring to ensure flower freshness. Specialized packaging, tailored to different flower types, and multi-modal transport systems ensure global delivery within 24 hours.
Challenges and Opportunities in Flower Cold Chain Logistics
While the floral economy continues to grow, several challenges remain, including inadequate packaging materials and low cold chain penetration, particularly in developing regions like Yunnan. The need for professional packaging, improved cold chain infrastructure, and better transportation coordination is critical to reducing losses and improving flower quality.
Enhancing Cold Chain Efficiency: To reduce flower loss, packaging should be more specialized, using insulated, pressure-resistant materials suited for cold chain logistics. Additionally, advancements in flower preservation technologies such as dynamic atmosphere preservation and vacuum sealing can extend freshness during transit.
Improving Logistics Infrastructure: Establishing dedicated cold chain transportation lines and improving logistics information systems are key to minimizing losses and ensuring timely delivery. By adopting real-time monitoring and efficient handling practices, the flower industry can reduce spoilage and increase competitiveness.
With the booming “floral economy” driving a multi-billion-dollar consumption market, Yunnan’s government is implementing policies to support the development of the flower industry, such as the “Yunnan Provincial Flower Industry High-Quality Development Action Plan” and the “14th Five-Year Cold Chain Logistics Development Plan.” These efforts aim to enhance the quality, efficiency, and competitiveness of Yunnan’s flower industry on the global stage.
Optimizing Cold Chain Standards and Information Systems: Establishing comprehensive cold chain logistics standards and utilizing information technology will further reduce logistics losses, streamline operations, and ensure flowers maintain optimal freshness from farm to consumer.
Post time: Nov-27-2024