China has planted a total of 147,500 hectares of flowers thanks to its strenuous and meticulous efforts over 20-odd years, thus ranking the first in the industry around the world.
Flower production and consumption has been soaring in China in recent years, according to insiders in the flower industry on Wednesday.
By the end of 2001, China had more than 20,000 flower-growing enterprises and over 2,000 flower wholesale markets, with 1.45 million people working for this booming trade.
In last year alone, China sold a total of 3.8 billion fresh flowers and 810 million potted flowers.
Flower business in Beijing and Shanghai municipalities as well as Hainan, Yunnan and a number of other provinces in south and southwest China have been booming with more brisk markets.
With a combined flower acreage of 13,000 hectares, the east China business center of Shanghai sold 450 million fresh flowers annually in recent years. Meanwhile, Beijing's market demand for fresh flowers stood at nearly 300 million and that for potted flowers was as high as approximately 30 million.
In recent years, much progress has been made in the selection of flower seed varieties and nursing of flowers. The flower industry has been shifted from its production-oriented pattern to consumption-oriented, insiders said.
(People's Daily October 4, 2002)
