by RYAN MILEJCZAK
Sponsored by Farm Credit of Central Florida
As one of the nation’s great agricultural powerhouses, it’s no surprise that Florida’s horticulture and floriculture industries are some of the most impressive in the nation.
As of 2024, there were 44,000 farms and ranches in the state of Florida, utilizing 9.7 million acres to produce a wide variety of agricultural products. This production represents a total of $8.88 billion in cash receipts, up 12% from the previous year. Of this, 77.3% of cash receipts were from crops, with the rest from products such as livestock and milk.
The leading crop commodities in Florida, as of the most recent numbers, are floriculture, followed by sugarcane, oranges, and strawberries. In total, out of these $8.88 billion in cash receipts:
- 7.6% is from citrus
- 19.6% is from vegetables and melons
- 8.9% is from sugarcane
- 3.6% is from field crops
- 6.7% is from other fruits
- 13.2% is from floriculture
- 17.8% is from other crops
When it comes to floriculture alone, Florida has the highest sales of any state (perhaps unsurprising for a state whose name can be translated as “the land of flowers”), with a total of $1.2 billion in floriculture sales for 2023. This is compared to $983 million for the runner-up, California, and $695 million for the number 3 spot, Michigan.
This is despite Florida ranking number 5 in total floriculture operations; as of 2023, there were 675 total floriculture operations in the state, compared to 746 for the top spot, California.
The top 3 floriculture crops in Florida by area cultivated are cut flowers (99.4 million sq ft), indoor foliage (94.6 million sq ft), and bedding/garden plants (55.1 million sq ft).
Including landscaping, Florida’s “green industries” (floriculture, horticulture, landscaping, and related industries such as wholesalers) account for 279,000 jobs in our state, a 4.8% increase from 2022 and a 20% increase since reporting began in 2015.
While a large portion of this growth is driven by the expansion of the landscape services sector in response to our growing population, about 8,116 new jobs were added in the nursery production sector, up more than 43% since 2011.
Currently, greenhouse and nursery production employs just shy of 27,000 people in Florida, while 3,314 florists are employed in our state. There are also nearly 8,000 people employed by the nursery and florist merchant wholesalers industry.
While there has been a slight reduction in the total number of nurseries (1,109 establishments for the most recent numbers, compared to 1,121 establishments two years prior), total workers in this industry have risen. This is likely due to a combination of consolidation and expansion in this industry.
These green industry jobs together create more than $7.6 billion in direct wages and compensation, and almost $13.8 billion in downstream income. This represents an increase of 21.2% from 2020, and helps support families, schools, and businesses across our state. In fact, total wages paid in Florida’s green industries has more than doubled since 2015.
Of these wages, just over $1 billion went to greenhouse and nursery production, nearly $443 million to nursery and merchant wholesalers, and almost $112 million to florists.
The total economic contributions of Florida’s green industry are up almost $8 billion (48%) from 2020, and $11 billion higher than in 2015. These industries support $24 billion in GDP contributions, of which over $4 billion is from greenhouse and nursery production, $2 billion from nursery and florist merchant wholesalers, and $288 million from florists.
While many in the US imagine Florida as the land of sand and sun, it’s also one of the nation’s most important states for agriculture. Horticulture and floriculture are a part of our identity, and as these numbers show, they’ll continue to be so well into the future.