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ENA General Assembly Meeting
- 07 March 2017
ENA -European Nurserystock Association- accepted Ukraine as a new member, shared information with American colleagues and discussed new projects.
The European Nurserystock Association (ENA) General Assembly met in Essen, Germany, during IPM trade show, on January 26th, 2017. Over thirty delegates from sixteen countries participated and discussed the main concerns of the European nursery sector in a meeting chaired by Mr. Jan-Dieter Bruns, ENA Vice-president.
ENA has reached 20 members with the approval of Ukraine as a new member.
A large number of delegates from the Ukraine Plants Industry Association were present at the meeting, where the General Assembly unanimously accepted their association as the 20th ENA member. The leading Ukrainian nurseries are members of the Ukraine Plants Industry Association and their Secretary General, Mr. Stanislav Dontsov, made a presentation on the country sector.
Ukraine:
- Nurseries: 100
- Production area: 3.000 hectares
- Employees: 10.000
- Market size: 70 Million €
Recession is over for the US nurseries.
Mr. Miles Rosedale, CEO of Monrovia Growers, the #1 USA nursery, was invited by Vice-president Jan-Dieter Bruns to give a short presentation about the situation of the American nurseries. The American nursery industry, including the landscape, is about 15 billion € and out of that, 40% are plants. Five years ago, there were too many growers and too many plants when the housing collapsed and nurseries couldn’t sell plants; particularly big plants in containers had a 40-50% drop in sales. Now they are recovering from the recession; big plants are back in demand for landscaping, but 25-30% of the growers in the US closed. Five years ago, the prices were also the weakest of the last 40 years, but from that time prices have been increasing 5% every year. While they had lots of labour and were not too expensive before the recession, now there is a lack of labour and the costs are going up. In the future, the industry will face new channels of distribution, independent garden centres will diminish their share of the market and digital customers will become important.
ENA “Green Cities for Europe” PROMOTION campaign.
ENA agreed on applying for an EU promotion grant for the “Green Cities for Europe” campaign, aimed at increasing awareness of the benefits of a green urban environment for health, biodiversity, wellbeing, social coherence and climate change.
Mr. Leon Smet, chairman of the ENA Promotion Working Group, highlighted that “Urban green spaces such as domestic gardens, parks, and woodlands provide a multitude of benefits to human urban populations and contribute to climate change mitigation. By improving physical fitness and reducing depression, the presence of green spaces can enhance the health and well-being of people living and working in cities. Green spaces also indirectly impact our health by improving air quality and limiting the impact of heatwaves by reducing urban temperatures. In addition, urban vegetation helps to mitigate climate change by storing carbon and reduces the likelihood of flooding by storing excess rain. Besides that, an urban area with lots of green areas will make building structures -houses, offices and public buildings- more valuable compared to urban areas with no or little green areas.”
The campaign will be developed in B2B congresses, seminars and business meetings, supported by an EU website and printed information aimed at city planners, decision makers, politicians, landscape and urban architects, landscape contractors, housing authorities and public influencers. The program has a strong focus on exchanging knowledge about the values of green in urban areas. The nursery industry can play a vital role in the future of European cities!
Xylella fastidiosa disease
The ENA General Assembly largely discussed the effects of Xylella and the emergency measures taken by the EU. While it was clearly stated that strict measures are necessary to stop the bacterium, it was also mentioned that it’s necessary to keep all nurserymen and all professionals in the chain well informed about the disease and its consequences. There was unanimity on affirming that compensations are necessary to cover the losses in nurseries, due to the application of official measures. ENA General Assembly decided to create a working group on Xylella.
ENA 25th anniversary closing ceremony
Delegates from each country informed the General Assembly of the tree planting ceremonies held all over Europe to commemorate the 25th anniversary of ENA. Last autumn, a tree was planted in each of the following cities: Brussels (Belgium), Naousa (Greece), Warsaw (Poland), Santarém (Portugal), Helsinki (Finland), Chilton-Oxfordshire (United Kingdom), Sofia, Burgas, Pavlikeni, Targovishte and Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria), Collodi – Pescia (Italy), Dublin (Ireland), Šabac and Belgrade (Serbia), The Hague (the Netherlands), Uster (Switzerland), Girona (Spain), Malmö (Sweden), Odense (Denmark) and Paris (France). It was agreed on celebrating a closing event, planting a tree in Brussels next spring, coordinated by BdB, the German organisation.
