DANISH ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURE IN GREENHOUSES AND THE QUEST FOR NEW CROPS

On a world scale Danish greenhouse production is quantitatively not very significant. The total heated greenhouse area covers some 500 ha of which approx. 375 ha are used for ornamental plants (table 1), compared to a total of around 60 000 ha for Europe. That gives one m² of greenhouse area per capita compared to ½ m² in BRD and 6 in the Netherlands. Danish greenhouses are mostly owned and operated by growers with less than one ha under glass (90% of the firms, but only 70% of the areas). Consequently many of the 1 400 firms have rather few employees outside the family although there is a tendency towards fewer and larger firms (table 2, Johansen, 1988).

The production patterns in Danish greenhouses are illustrated in table 3 from which it is evident that the relative importance of the main crop groups has changed much during the last couple of decades and they still continue to do so as a result of the market opportunities and the general economic conditions.

Figure 1 shows an example of the economic analysis for producing different types of crops. This may perhaps also explain the shift from cut flower production and vegetables toward potted plants and bedding plants (table 3, figure 2).

The main areas of production are the island of Fyn (Funen), in Jylland (Jutland) around Aarhus and eastern Sjælland (Zealand) near København (Copenhagen, table 4, figure 1). These areas coincide with the locations of the largest co-op sales organizations, the GASAs in the west and the Copenhagen wholesale market in the east. These sales centers have provided the basis for initially local sales, but lately also to a large extent the export of potted plants. There is no doubt that the existence of especially the GASA family of sales co-ops have been the locomotive pulling the development of the modern efficient and competitive ornamental plant production in Denmark (table 5, figure 3).

The crops grown in the greenhouses of Denmark are mainly (approx. 70%) relatively small, flowering plants - the "bouquet on roots" as they have been called (Klougart, 1987) the remainder of the area is used for foliage plants and cut flowers.