California nursery sales dropped 19.4% in 2008-2009, according to the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers (CANGC).
Combined impacts of the homebuilding collapse, recession, drought and other factors kept sales at $3.3 billion in 2008-2009 compared to $4 billion in 2007-2008, according to Hoy Carman, an agricultural economist at University of California–Davis.
The year-to-year decline broke a 15-year record of uninterrupted sales growth dating back to 1993.
California retail sales of lawn and garden products, including nursery items, also declined $1.6 billion (a 12% drop) to $11.7 billion, and nursery production and retailing lost an estimated 25,492 jobs in 2008-2009, employing 192,065 Californians. Landscapers, businesses, municipalities and homeowners all reduced their spending on nursery products in response to cessation of new construction, sharply reduced home values, loss of jobs, rising unemployment and reduced incomes, Carman said. Regulatory actions and invasive pest quarantines were also factors in the declines for nurseries.
Carman's report is the latest in a series of previous annual studies of California's nursery and floral sector. Nursery and floral crops each typically rank within the top ten California crops. Combined nursery and floriculture ranked second overall in 2008-2009, exceeded only by milk and cream sales.