Cut flower prices have been rising all the way; what will the flower market price be like in 2017?

By the end of 2016, agricultural products such as vegetables, meat and aquatic products all ushered in a wave of price increases. Besides what is placed on the dining table, home decorations also became more expensive. Recently, reporters visited flower markets in various places and found that since November, the price of cut flowers has been marching triumphantly upward, and entering December, this momentum has continued unabated, with the price increases of some flower varieties reaching 40% for several consecutive days.

2016 was absolutely a good year for the flower market, not only with prices rising all the way, but also with sales showing an obvious increase. In 2017, will such favorable conditions continue?

At the Beijing Yuquanying Flower Market, flower seller Mr. Wu is busy in his shop. As the end of the year approaches and New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are about to arrive, many more customers have come to buy flowers. Mr. Wu said that at this time in previous years, flower prices would rise a little, but this year's increase is very large.

Mr. Wu: Prices rise every year at this season, because they start rising from the shippers' side. Now the purchase price of roses has to rise 23%, 30%; that was the price from the past couple of days. Now filler flowers are all rising too, especially flower materials in red tones and pink tones, colors with a festive feel, all rising.

At the Dounan Flower Market in Yunnan, flower wholesaler Mr. Xia is also busy wholesaling flowers. New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are peak periods for weddings, and market demand for bright-colored fresh flowers, especially roses, has increased a great deal.

Mr. Xia: Because there is still a wedding peak period later, for weddings, bright-color combinations will have a more prominent price. The fastest-rising one now is the Cold Beauty series; basically the daily increase reaches 40%, for three consecutive days already.

Reporters learned that since November this year, flower prices in various places have shown obvious growth. In the last three or four days, the average price of roses at the Yunnan Dounan Flower Market has reached 1.65 yuan per stem, up 33% from the same period last year, and sales volume has also increased by 400,000 stems from the same period last year. Zhang Shaoliang, an analyst at the Yunnan Dounan Flower Market, told reporters that this year, the income of Yunnan flower farmers is also much higher than before.

Zhang Shaoliang: Flower farmers' income is also much higher, with a bunch of flowers increasing by about 5 yuan to 8 yuan.

With both prices and sales rising together, such favorable conditions undoubtedly brought a satisfactory end to 2016 for the flower market. The main reason the flower market showed such a booming scene at the end of the year is a large increase in demand. Wholesaler Mr. Xia told reporters that in recent years, there have been more and more flower e-commerce businesses, and their demand for fresh flowers, as well as their requirements for flower quality, have to a certain extent played a promoting role in price increases.

Mr. Xia: Later, after the 15th to the 20th, prices here reach a peak period. The reason the increase has been so large during this period is that domestic e-commerce businesses have been mushrooming, which has enriched direct-sales online platforms. Compared with traditional sales, these platforms have slightly higher requirements, so good flowers are hard to find. Add to that their demand for quality and their yearning for quality, and first of all good quality has driven prices up, so up to now, flower prices have been soaring.

However, entering winter, flower production in the south has somewhat decreased, and good-quality fresh flowers are even harder to find. Combined with demand for fresh flowers from festivals and weddings, in order to maintain supply sources, some buyers have begun to scramble for goods and stockpile them, which has also fueled flower prices on the market. Beijing flower seller Mr. Wu.

Mr. Wu: There are also certain human factors, stockpiling and holding back goods, mainly by first-tier wholesalers over in the south. A situation has now formed, which is stockpiling.

Zhang Shaoliang, an analyst at the Yunnan Dounan Flower Market, told reporters that in October this year, a situation once appeared on the market in which fresh flowers were in short supply. Although the situation is now stable, the large demand from the terminal market, as well as purchasers' speculative mentality about fresh flowers continuing to rise in price, still prompts them to scramble for large quantities of goods.

Zhang Shaoliang: Because we are quite sensitive to price increases, since orders from all over the country are at Dounan. If fresh flowers are in short supply, then order-grabbing appears, because shippers have to complete their profits, that is, they have to complete a certain volume of orders to make a profit, so they scramble for flowers, and as a result prices are bid up higher and higher.

Analyst Zhang Shaoliang said that nowadays people's living standards are getting higher and higher, and their demand for fresh flowers is also growing. For a period later on, various festivals will arrive in a concentrated way, which may push flower prices to continue rising. In the future, the flower market still has a certain space for development.

Zhang Shaoliang: The future trend is fairly promising. Last year the Spring Festival and Valentine's Day overlapped, flower consumption doubled, and prices soared, which had a certain rationality. This year the Spring Festival is on January 27, and prices generally rise one week in advance; Valentine's Day is February 14, and prices generally rise 11 days in advance. Considering the increase in flower planting area this year, the supply is sufficient, and there will not be explosive growth. After Christmas this year, cut flowers will decline somewhat, but the margin will not be very large, because next the New Year's Day stocking will begin again, so please have practitioners in the fresh flower industry prepare for small price increases.