Say What? Letters, e-mails, posts and comments

The most severe recession the majority of us have lived through is coming to an end. My family’s retail growing operation in Massachusetts has paid a heavy toll just as many other small- to medium-sized operations have. With two brothers and our parents in business together, this difficult business climate has caused us to downsize considerably.

Customer erosion for us and many small operations like ours has been devastating. Poor marketing? Maybe. Poor promotion? Perhaps. But most damaging has been the effect of commoditization of products in our local marketplace. Crops that once were profitable today are much less so.

My research of greenhouse profitability is going on 10 years now. It has provided me with opportunities to work with agricultural economists and business management experts. All agree that if floriculture production is operating in excess, it signals the onset of a mature market stage. Once that condition sets roots, industry decline is inevitable.

According to statistics, an industry of approximately 10,000 greenhouse operations has contracted to 7,000.

What have we learned?
My fear is that those growers still in business at the end of this recession will see a signal to return to what they did before it occurred. There’s a problem with that, however, our industry isn’t going back to those glory days. New paradigms, new business models, new consumers await us.

As business comes back, are too many growers going to be satisfied just to sense the demand has returned and default to production levels of the past? Will it be the old mentality of let’s grow more six packs of annuals or 4-inch impatiens and geraniums? No need to worry about margin, we’ll make it up in volume.

Instead of learning how to grow small numbers of unusual, value-added, high margin crops, will those idle greenhouses be filled once again with traditional, but now commodity, crops. Rather than create demand I’m worried that too many growers will opt for increasing supply.

For my family’s operation we’ve concluded that growing floriculture crops alone will not sustain the business. Learning how to leverage our skills as growers and local experts of edible crops will return us to our original farming roots. Learning how to diversify the operation and morph into a horticultural destination instead of just a floricultural one will bring us new opportunities. And learning how to reconnect with our community as a responsible, sustainable neighbor looks like a great direction to choose.

Peter Konjoian is co-owner of Konjoian’s Greenhouses and president of Konjoian’s Floriculture Education Services, peterkfes@comcast.net.