World demand for lawn & garden consumables to reach $19.5 billion in 2019

World demand for lawn and garden consumables — including packaged fertilizers, pesticides, growing media, seeds and other products — is projected to advance 3.7 percent per year to $19.5 billion in 2019. Gains in the professional segment will be faster than in consumer applications, supported by robust construction activity and increased investment in the development of urban greenspaces. Consumer demand will be promoted by the continued popularity of gardening as a hobby in developed regions and increasing numbers of small container and community gardens in urban areas in developing regions. These and other trends are presented in World Lawn & Garden Consumables, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm.

In the professional market, rebounding construction spending in developed nations and continued expansion of infrastructure in industrializing areas will support rising demand for products used in new landscaping. According to analyst Emily Park, “Efforts to increase greenspace in densely populated cities, particularly in China, will also promote demand.” Environmental concerns, particularly those related to fertilizers and pesticides, will prevent faster gains in developing regions. In the golf course segment, declining numbers of rounds played, coupled with environmentally sustainable initiatives, will hinder growth. In the consumer market, gardening and lawn care’s continued popularity as a hobby in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Western Europe will drive growth. Food gardening in particular is widely enjoyed in these regions. In developing economies, rising personal incomes, an expanding middle class, and urbanization trends will support growth.

The fastest growth is expected in developing regions, particularly the Asia/Pacific and Africa/Mideast. While per capita lawn and garden use rates for consumables in these regions are low, growth in infrastructure and construction activity and rising living standards will drive continued gains. In developed markets, such as North America and Western Europe, growth rates will be below the global average, but will represent an improvement over the more tepid gains in the 2009-2014 period, when construction activity grew sluggishly and consumers were recovering from the recession.