Nursery Industry Collection

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    NAME OF ORGANISATION
    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    OVERVIEW
    For some time the nursery industry has lacked an integrated set of statistics which accurately reflects its contribution to the economy. To overcome this deficiency, the Nursery Industry Association of Australia (NIAA) engaged the ABS to conduct two collections for the industry covering the financial years 1992-93 and 1993-94. The results obtained from these two collections were very useful to the industry. The industry has since approached the ABS to conduct a nursery collection for the financial year 1996-97.
    Information required is not needed each year and following the conduct of this cycle, the NIAA and the Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC) will assess future data needs.

    PURPOSE
    The results of the collection will be used by the Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC) and the Nursery Industry Association of Australia (NIAA) to develop an improved nursery statistical database. This collection is being partly funded by these organisations. The development of this database will enable the industry to undertake strategic planning, to make better informed decisions regarding industry structure and assist domestic and export marketing activities. The data will also be used by relevant Government departments for the analysis of nursery and related industries.

    SCOPE
    The nursery collection used a hybrid population list consisting of establishments reporting nursery, cut flower and/or turf production on the agricultural census; nursery wholesalers and retailers selected from the ABS' Business Register and units selected from other sources, including various industry association member lists.

    Chain store and department stores were also sent a special form designed to capture the nursery retailing activities of their business.

    DATA DETAIL

    Conceptual framework
    The nursery collection is a census of farms and businesses engaged in nursery activities, hence it is an "activity" collection, where "nursery activities" are defined by the industry.

    Specifically excluded from the collection were the numerous roadside sellers and other outlets where selling of plant material is regarded as a secondary activity.

    Main outputs
    Population/Units: data is collected from establishments.
    Data Breakdowns: each table has State and Australian totals. State level data is the lowest level of data available.

    The list of tables for the 1996/97 collection were:

    1. Number of establishments with sales of nursery material by activity, 1996-97
    2. Nursery sales by activity, 1996-97
    3. Area of land used for nursery growing and growing-on, 1996-97
    4. Sales from production nurseries made to various market sectors, 1996-97
    5. Sales by type of plant material produced by production nurseries, 1996-97
    6. Number of production nurseries by type of plant material grown, 1996-97
    7. Current and Capital Expenditure by production dominated nurseries, 1996-97
    8. Average number, average size and wage costs for production dominated nurseries by number of employees during year ended 30 June 1997
    9. Employment patterns in production dominated nurseries, 1996-97
    10. Estimated percentage of time spent on the following activities in production dominated nurseries, 1996-97
    11. Production nurseries sale of garden accessories and services, 1996-97
    12. Number of nursery businesses by type, 1996-97
    13. Plant hire and maintenance statistics, 1996-97
    15. Number of retail, department and chain stores by type of plant material sold, 1996-97
    17. Number of nurseries with sales of garden accessories and services, 1996-97

    2.1. Number of establishments with sales of cut flowers and turf by activity, 1996-97
    2.2. Sales of cut flower and cultivated turf by activity, 1996-97
    2.3. Area of land used for cut flower and turf growing and growing on, 1996-97
    2.4. Current and capital expenditure by businesses other than production nurseries, 1996-97
    2.5. Average number, average size and wage costs for businesses other than production nurseries by number of employees during the year ended 30 June 1997
    2.6. Employment patterns in businesses other than production nurseries, 1996-97
    2.7. Estimated percentage of time spent on the following activities in business other than production nurseries

    Classifications
    Activities undertaken by establishments in this collection were classified according to the following categories:

    • Production (sales of plant material grown, grown-on or propagated):
      Refers only to the sales of plant material produced by establishments by growing, growing-on or by propagating. The plants referred to include ornamental plants, plants for transplanting into gardens (such as seedlings or young fruit trees), bulbs, turf growing and growing flowers for cutting for display or growing flowers for seed collection.
    • Wholesale sales (reselling purchased goods to retailers or other wholesalers):
      Refers only to the sale (as agents or principals) of plant material and other goods which were purchased for resale to retailers or wholesalers. This includes sales of cut flowers or horticultural goods such as seedlings, shrubs, tress or other nursery stock.
    • Retail sales (sales to final consumers):
      Refers to the retail sale of goods purchased for immediate resale to final consumers e.g. landscapers and the general public. This includes sales of cut flowers, horticultural goods such as seeds, seedlings, shrubs, trees or other nursery stock.
    • Hiring of plants:
      This category refers to the hire of plants, shrubs, or trees and artificial plants.

    Other concepts (summary)
    Growing: the actual process of growing seed, plants, from seedlings, tissue culture, grafting, etc.

    Growing-on: where material is purchased and needs some further processing before it is ready for sale e.g. purchasing a seedling, which requires further growing before it can be sold.

    GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
    Australia
    New South Wales
    Victoria
    Queensland
    South Australia
    Western Australia
    Tasmania
    Northern Territory
    ACT

    Comments and/or Other Regions
    not applicable

    COLLECTION FREQUENCY
    Adhoc

    Frequency comments
    Collection was conducted previously in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 financial years.

    COLLECTION HISTORY
    Collection

    Date Year Comment

    Sep 1993 1992-93 First collection undertaken.

    Oct 1994 1992-93 Release of 1992-93 data.

    Oct 1994 1993-94 Second collection undertaken. Retail chains (e.g. K-Mart), supermarkets, hardware stores etc. included for first time.

    Aug 1995 1992-93 Revision of 1992-93 data to take into account non-respsonse.

    Aug 1995 1993-94 Release of 1993-94 data. Release date was delayed due to data quality problems

    Feb 1997 1996-97 preliminary discussions commenced.

    1998 Collection ceased.

    DATA AVAILABILITY
    Yes

    Data availability comments
    The major user of data collected is the Nursery Industry Association of Australia (NIAA). Data is released to NIAA in the form of a pre-specified set of tables, about 11 months after the reference period. This collection has now ceased.


    DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
    06/05/2002 08:49 AM