Flower, ornamental tree prices scale new heights

The flower and ornamental tree market has been steadily humming for the last several days, three weeks before Tet. Prices have been stable for popular products, but prices for high grade goods have been escalating.

Imported flowers dominating market

“Seventy percent of flowers and ornamental trees are from China,’ said Nam, the owner of Giang Nam Floral Shop in Hanoi

Nam said that flowers from China are diverse and fit the wallets of most consumers. Import prices for 2010 are equal to those of the previous year, while some types of Dalat orchids are becoming more expensive due to short supplies.

“People this year tend to choose trees with reasonable prices. I think that purchases will not increase in the high grade market sector. I just focus on the most salable products,” said Nguyen Thi Tuyen, a shop owner.

Prices for styled ornamental trees are not much higher than ordinary, priced at 200,000-500,000 per pot. Popular trees are still selling at 70,000-100,000 dong, the same rate as 2009.

In contrast, high grade products are some 20 percent more expensive than normal.

At Anh Tri Floral Supermarket, where some 10,000 orchid branches sourced from Sapa and Dalat and also imported from China and Taiwan are available.

Cuong, the supermarket’s director, revealed that orchids are selling at between several million dong to tens of millions of dong per pot.

The 20 percent price increase for high grade and imported ornamental trees has been blamed on higher input costs such as the dong/dollar rate increase, agriculture materials and labour cost increases.

He estimated that a good orchid pot would be priced at between one million to 1.5 million dong.

Cuong also believes that even with higher prices, he will still sell all his high grade products. “Consumers nowadays have become more fastidious about flowers, especially flowers for Tet.”

The Tropical Flower Company, which has 300,000 tulip branches, plans to raise the price by 15 percent over Tet 2009, claiming the supply is too short to meet demand.

Dai Viet Floral Company in Dalat added that the short supply of flower seed may raise prices up to 20-30 percent.

Tags: Vietnam flower market