One hundred and fifty billion forints spent on gardening in Hungary

When the good weather arrives, people go out and start gardening even if they never do during the year. Can we say that spring is the Christmas period for garden centres? 

Absolutely, spring is the most important period for garden centres; sixty percent of their annual turnover is generated in March April and May. Many stores even close for winter, and those that stay open mostly sell only indoor plants and other related products. In spring, however, people are becoming more active. 

How big is the increase in turnover in Oázis stores at the beginning of spring? 

There is a huge difference between the weakest and the strongest periods. Our sales revenue in April is ten times as high as in January. This is the same every year, regardless of the pandemic.

What products are the most popular with hobby gardeners? 

Geraniums are always among the most popular plants at this time of year, as well as other annuals, but berries like raspberries, blackberries and red currants are also very popular now.

Fruits that can be grown in containers have been selling very well for a year or two, but also vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and many others. Some of these vegetables can also be grown in containers. This is important because ninety percent of the households do not have a vegetable garden, the majority do not even have a garden, and so if they want to grow plants, they can only do so on terraces, balconies or simply on a windowsill. 

How big is the horticultural product market in Hungary? 

It's hard to say exactly. The sales revenue of garden centres is around 50-60 billion forints annually, but this amount only includes specialized stores. However, sales by primary producers are not insignificant either and flower shops also sell such products, only to mention those specialized in horticultural products. 

In addition to these specialized retailers, DIY stores, hypermarkets and discount stores periodically offer flowers and other seasonal products everywhere. Flower soil can even be bought at filling stations.

The amount that Hungarians spend on hobby gardening is around one hundred and fifty billion forints in total.

Which has a bigger impact on customers, the spring or the coronavirus? 

The main factor is undoubtedly the weather.

Everything depends on when spring starts and how long the good weather lasts. Apart from that, the economic situation, consumer sentiment and, since last year, the pandemic has also played a part. But basically everything is driven by the weather. When the sun comes out, people head to garden centres. If the weather is bad, they don’t want to do any gardening. Our situation is similar to ice cream parlours on the beach. 

In addition to all that, last year people started to feel the need for self-sufficiency because of the lockdown, so more and more people wanted to grow plants themselves, also because they could spend more time at home. Gardens and terraces became more important and people also wanted to make them look more attractive.

As a result, although we had fewer customers, they spent more money, so the two effects balanced each other out.

The epidemic simply reinforced the trend we have been experiencing for several years that people spend more and more time gardening. Last year, we jumped forward two or three years. 

Have you sold more seedlings than geraniums? 

Yes, but of course that doesn’t mean that people stopped buying vegetables at greengrocer’s. It simply gave them a sense of security. They could pick home grown tomatoes and peppers in the garden and make a nice Hungarian ‘lecsó’. It was more about the sense of success, seeing their crops grow.

How do you see the prospects for the season this year? 

I can say we are lucky with the weather. Spring came relatively early after a mild winter season, and we basically got off to a good start despite the chilly periods this spring. It also helps that the gardening experiences people had last year are generating purchases this year as well. 

It must have helped that garden centres did not have to close during lockdown... 

Yes, personally I was also lobbying so that we could stay open. If garden stores had been forced to close, producers would certainly go bankrupt. Plants are perishable products; a geranium has to be sold when it is blooming; you can’t wait with it for the epidemic to end. Producers can only buy raw materials for next year from the money they earn this year. In this respect, it was a very good decision by the government. 

Also, garden centres are not particularly dangerous as far as the health risk is concerned during the pandemic either, many of them are located outside the town centres, and in many stores, including ours, the number of customers has been limited; we allow a total of 20-30 customers at a time.

How has the price of horticultural products changed? 

Plants grown in Hungary are highly exposed to the exchange rate of the euro and the dollar, as the price of raw materials is generally calculated in these currencies. As the euro and dollar have strengthened in the last two years, plants have also become 15-20 percent more expensive. Ours is a very labour-intensive area, so the increase in labour costs and transportation fees has also affected the prices. As a result, production costs grew by 10-15 percent, which appeared in the prices. 

Gardening is becoming ever more popular as a hobby. Can you imagine a time when home-grown food plays a significant role in our diet? 

This is hardly feasible. So that a household can become fully self-sufficient, it would need to have at least a 200 square-metre vegetable garden, and also, it would need to have storage and preservation facilities, as fresh vegetables can only be picked in a limited period during the year. 

Therefore, the food industry will continue to be needed in the future. And also, the goal of most hobby gardeners is not self-sufficiency but recreation. It’s more like a free time activity, and I think it will stay that way.