After a research project Digital Business in the pot plant sector it appeared that such a project was also required for the arboricultural sector. LEI (Agriucultural Economic Institute), part of WUR (Wageningen University) has carried out a research project commissioned by Floricode, cooperating with FloraHolland and Stichting Beurshal.
Arboriculturists and traders in this branch who focus on sale to garden centers and DIY-markets indicate that the need for digital bids, orders and deliveries is increasing rapidly. Traders can thus further extend their assortment with arboricultural products.
Participating arboriculturists will adjust their logistic processes to the same processes as potplant growers have now been applying successfully since a year or two.
The results of the research project also showed that arboriculturists and traders who focus on different sales markets such as e.g. the institutional market, garden design have different requirements and needs as to the application of ICT in their management. The enterprises do not consider the application of ICT in their enterprise as an especially complex matter.
LEI advises to pay more attention to promoting digital business in this sector per target group. The problem of product coding for arboriculture requires a joint solution.
The presentation (in Dutch) of the results of the research project can be downloaded here.