Analysis of the Economic Importance of the German Horticultural Cluster

Within German agriculture, horticulture plays a small but important role. However, in the national accounts only horticultural production is considered, which builds the core of the German horticulture cluster. Hence, important parts of the horticultural value chain such as processing, trade and services are not taken into account. To get a clearer picture of the economic importance of horticulture in Germany, it is required to extend the system boundary as defined in the national accounts in order to account for upstream and downstream industries of the cluster as well. In a first step all related industries, i.e., those that either supply products to horticultural production or use horticultural products need to be identified. Thereafter the economic relevance of the horticultural cluster is quantified based on the indicators employment, output value and gross value added for each industry along the horticultural value chain. In a first step this analysis quantifies first results for directly related industries such as the chemical industry, wholesale, processing and landscaping as in a parallel study the economic relevance of horticultural production in Germany is quantified based on farm accountancy data. Indirectly related industries such as finance, retail, gastronomy or education will be investigated later to complete the analysis in a following step.