Statistics

The greenlife industry in Australia crosses all state borders and covers urban, peri-urban and rural environments. The industry is broad and encompasses the ornamental market and supplies starter plants for fruit and vegetable production and stock for landscaping, forestry and revegetation.  

The importance of the Industry cannot be overstated.  It has a farm gate value of $2.43b and is supported by 1,651 businesses employing over 23,000 Australians. It significantly underpins the food, fibre and foliage plant production in Australia and offers Australia both aesthetic and scientific solutions to climate mitigation.

Research shows that the Greenlife Industry is the single largest horticulture sector in Australia, providing starter crops for a range of other horticulture commodities.  The immediate availability of industry data has been instrumental in advocacy efforts with the National Cabinet during the first wave response to COVID-19 ensuring the industry and its supply chain was considered 'essential'.  An overview of the last three collections is available for download below.  Additional information is available in the Facts at a Glance for 2017/18 and 2018/19.

Since 2017 the national body has worked in partnership with Down to Earth Research and ACIL Allen Consulting to deliver valuable statistics and research for the greenlife industry through a project funded by Hort Innovation using the nursery research and development levy and funds from the Australian Government.  Under the project data is collected from a statistically representative same of production nursery businesses each year between October and December.  The data is collated captures the value and volume of greenlife produced in Australia for the previous financial year.  The results are announced in March of each year and a Business Benchmarking Tool for greenlife production businesses is developed using data.  The tool assist growers to benchmark their business against similar sized businesses growing similar plants.