A survey entitled “Ohio Landscape & Nursery Economic Impact Study” (a.k.a. “Green Industry Survey”) was conducted from February 2006 to June 2006 to attempt to document the economic size and importance of Ohio ‘s nursery and landscape industry in 2005. This study was designed to measure changes in the industry from similar previous studies. This project was undertaken with the financial support of the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association (ONLA) with the support of The Ohio State University Extension Nursery, Landscape and Turf Team. Research was conducted through the OSU Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics The list of licensed nursery dealers and nursery producers was provided by the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA).
Based on our survey results, we estimate the value of all sales by certified nursery stock dealers and producers in Ohio was $4.13 billion for 2005. The annual growth rate was 12.1% between 2001 and 2005. Of this total, approximately $3.36 billion was from licensed nursery dealers and $770.3 million from licensed nursery producers. Among enterprise sub-sectors of the total population, Landscape Services continue to be the high-sales leaders for the industry in Ohio at about $1.9 billion for combined Landscape Construction/Installation, Maintenance, and Design sales. Landscape maintenance alone grew 23.3% from 2001 to 2005.
The total number of employees in the nursery industry is still somewhat hard to determine using the existing methodology. However, the trends we saw in 2001 continued in 2005. We projected 241,735 workers employed at some level of the nursery and landscape industry in 2005, with an annual payroll for the industry of nearly $3 billion. Mixed enterprises (businesses participating in multiple subsectors, all of which are less than 50% of the total enterprise) are the largest labor demander with the combined landscape enterprises maintaining a strong second position in this study. The nursery and landscape industry contributed an estimated $491 million in taxes (property, sales, FICA, and income) in 2005.
Specific data and trend interpretation following previous study guidelines are contained in the full document at:
http://aede.osu.edu/resources/docs/pdf/PEL40PQJ-1MOH-CTRD-1JT7PH8GGWT2UGXI.pdf
Additional analysis will be conducted using the data set obtained in this project and will be available from the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics. For more information on this report or other aspects of this research, contact Stan Ernst, Ernst.1@osu.edu .