Impacts of COVID-19 on the Green Industry

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many horticultural 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 green industry in the U.S. 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 and compost showed the most significant increase in sales. A total of 64% of the businesses reported higher overall sales compared to the same season’s previous year, while less than 24% of the businesses reported decreased sales. Moreover, over 46% of the businesses indicated that COVID-19 had positively affected their sales in 2020, while 31% thought that it had negatively impacted their sales. These findings imply a greater demand potential for plants and gardening products/services from consumers, during this pandemic.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• green industry
• horticulture
• gardening
• nursery