Helping flower growers prepare for export markets

What is shaping floral

Flowers are bought for occasions, gifting and decoration, through florists, gifting platforms and street vendors. Freshness and delivery reliability are everything.

• Gifting occasions drive demand peaks
• Online gifting platforms are growing
• Growers need better access to markets

A floriculture development agency, working in Karnataka & Maharashtra. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A floriculture development agency

Sector

Floral

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Government research, Quantitative research, Research consultancy

Indian rose and carnation growers had strong production capacity, but few exported regularly. The agency wanted to understand what prevented growers from meeting international buyers’ requirements. Growers often sold through intermediaries and had little direct contact with international buyers.

• Deliver on the brief: helping flower growers prepare for export markets.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of growers.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of packhouses.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 9 weeks.

The work focused on 400 growers, 18 packhouses and 15 buyers.

• growers400
• packhouses18
• buyers15

Audiences we typically reach in floral

Gift buyersFloristsFlower growersEvent plannersCorporate gifting buyers

Coverage: Karnataka & Maharashtra. Market: India.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Grower survey
3. 3Packhouse audits
4. 4Buyer interviews
5. 5Insight

We surveyed greenhouse growers about varieties, post-harvest handling, cold storage and market access, and audited packhouses against common export requirements. Interviews with importers in Europe, Japan and the Gulf explored quality and logistics expectations.

Government researchQuantitative researchResearch consultancy

growers

400

packhouses

18

buyers

15

• Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
• Auditors and mystery shoppers followed a standard checklist, recording evidence at each visit.

• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Photo or document evidence for audit points
• Second-reviewer checks on scores
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Cold-chain gaps between farm and airport and inconsistent grading were the main barriers.

The weakest link in the cold chain decided export readiness.

• Build on the core insight: the weakest link in the cold chain decided export readiness.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: cold-chain gaps between farm and airport and inconsistent grading were the main barriers.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The agency supported shared cold storage near airports and grading training for grower groups.
• Several grower groups began shipping directly to importers within the following season.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Evaluation findings with programme recommendations

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what do growers need?