EUROPEAN CARNATION TRADE AND SPANISH PARTICIPATION

The carnation market in the E.E.C. (European Economic Community) has had the following performance during the last decade:

1. Demand has moderately increased although very unevenly : there has been a great expansion in England and a stabilization in Germany and some other countries in the Mediterranean basin.
2. The carnation share in the whole cut flower consumption has decreased.
3. The national consumption models are becoming similar: per capita consumption and demand structure by kind of flowers are levelling.
4. Supply has suffered a geographical reset: selfsufficiency has decreased and geographical composition of imports has changed. Countries like Spain, Turkey and Holland have advanced in their participation while others like Israel, Italy and, on a lesser scale, Colombia and Kenia have receded.

Carnation supply and demand behaviour can be explained by the particular place of this species in the global market of cut flowers: a standard and "mature" product (Mulder, 1989), whose demand leads to a stabilization as flower consumption and diversification grow, and a labour intensive activity, which tends to move to labour abundant countries.