Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Impacts of COVID-19 on the Horticultural Industry
Version 1
: Received: 27 July 2021 / Approved: 28 July 2021 / Online: 28 July 2021 (10:26:00 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Marwah, P.; Zhang, Y.Y.; Gu, M. Impacts of COVID-19 on the Green Industry. Horticulturae 2021, 7, 329. Marwah, P.; Zhang, Y.Y.; Gu, M. Impacts of COVID-19 on the Green Industry. Horticulturae 2021, 7, 329.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to alter the way they operate. This includes, but may not be limited to, changing hours of operation, working with limited staff, and restricting customer access indoors. This could result in several challenges for businesses. In this study, we evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on the horticultural industry and identify the challenges for businesses). Based on our research findings, the major challenges faced by businesses were not having enough employees and inventory to keep up with consumer demand during COVID-19. We also evaluate the effect of the pandemic on the sales of different plants, gardening products/services, and the overall revenues of businesses. For different types of plants included in the survey, landscape herbaceous flowers, landscape shrubs, and landscape trees showed the most significant increase in sales. In addition, for different gardening products/services, container plants, small plants, and soil & compost showed the most significant increase in sales. 64% of the businesses indicated higher overall sales compared to same season previous year. Over 46% of the businesses reported increased sales in 2020 under COVID-19. These findings imply a greater demand potential for plants and gardening products/services from consumers, in light of this pandemic.
Keywords
COVID-19, Gardening Industry, COVID-19, gardening industry, horticulture, nursery and landscape, business survey
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Horticulture
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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