Despite the seasonality, the business of selling plants to amateur gardeners impresses with its income. It is enough to open a plant nursery to be convinced of the profitability of this type of business.
Many businessmen, starting with piece sales of seedlings in the spring, have built entire large enterprises using greenhouses to receive diverse incomes, both from sales of finished products and from sales of young plants.
In Russia, this business is in its infancy, but the example of the Netherlands, which exports billions of dollars of plant nursery products a year, confirms the prospects of this business, especially since the climatic conditions in Holland are not much more favorable than in Russia.
One of the most important conditions for a seedling growing business is the availability of free land.
Therefore, this type of business can be successfully developed in rural areas, using the possibility of buying or renting vacant plots. At the same time, although the area of land and its quality play a crucial role for organizing a large-scale business, it is possible to create quite successful enterprises without having many hectares in limited areas.
In any case, the creation of a plant nursery, as a business, must begin with marketing research, with the help of which it is necessary to determine not only the demand for products and the presence of competitors, but also the prospects of the selected plot of land.
First of all, you need to analyze the environmental conditions:
- climate,
- air humidity,
- growing season,
- temperature fluctuations,
- time of spring and autumn frosts,
- Direction of the wind.
Based on the climatic conditions, you can decide on the types of plants that will be grown in the nursery. These can be ornamental plants, or they can be seedlings of vegetable or fruit crops. Particular attention should be paid to the state of the land itself, to determine the composition of the soil, the level of groundwater, the need to create an artificial reservoir.
The next step will be the preparatory work for the creation of a plant nursery and its design.
All plants that are supposed to be grown in the nursery must be broken down by growing time, growth rate, and propagation method. The layout of the nursery and the movement of planting material will depend on this.
When planning a plant nursery, three main parts are usually distinguished — sowing, uterine and cuttings, which, in turn, are divided into plots. The main area of the nursery is the so-called schools, in which they grow planting material. Not only the survival of plants, but also their health depends on the correct planning of a plant nursery, so many factors must be taken into account, including crop rotation.
If the entrepreneur does not have special knowledge in this area, then it is better to involve specialists in planning the territory of the plant nursery.
In addition to planning the actual area of the land plot, it will be necessary to build special premises for household work, as well as greenhouses for growing seedlings. If the entrepreneur has a relatively small plot of land, less than a hectare, then it is better to make the plant nursery specialized, focusing on a limited number of plant species.
For example, growing flowers such as roses can be beneficial. During one season, several tens of thousands of rose seedlings can be grown on one site, each of which costs from 150 to 500 dollars on the market.
It is clear that when growing flowers, you will have to build greenhouses, since the planting material must have time to grow before the start of the planting season. Similar plant nurseries can be arranged for growing seedlings of vegetable crops, strawberries, raspberries, currants, and so on.
Of great importance in the success of a business is the availability of demand for the crops grown, as well as the existence of distribution channels.
It can be very successful to conclude contracts with wholesale buyers of seedlings, or corporate customers. However, an entrepreneurial plant nursery owner can also create sales channels on his own by organizing small shops or fenced areas near roads or garden markets.
As for the initial costs of establishing a plant nursery, they largely depend on the area of the site and the set of plant species. The cost of establishing a plant nursery can range from several hundred thousand to several thousand dollars. The complexity of investing in the creation of a plant nursery lies in the fact that such an enterprise begins to receive income with a significant lag in time from the costs of its creation.
That is why the competition in this type of business is quite low, since entrepreneurs usually seek to get a quick return on their investments. Nevertheless, the profitability of such a business is from 100 to 120%, which allows you to recoup your investment and make a profit during the first season. This is especially true for nurseries of flowers, vegetables and berries.
To build a successful plant nursery business, you need to act systematically and professionally, calculating every ruble of costs and return on investment.
We are ready to help you create your business by preparing a detailed business plan and all the necessary economic calculations according to your order.
