HORTICULTURAL MANAGEMENT

Horticultural Managers are likely to be in short supply in the future.

How to Earn More Working in Horticulture

Learn to properly value and charge for your services. Rates charged by or paid to horticulturists have always been extremely variable. In today's world, there are horticultural experts who can command very high levels of income, and others who readily accept below average income.

Horticulturists often complain that they don't get paid enough (compared with other professions). There are various reasons for this.

1. One common reason is that people who are attracted to gardening tend to be "gentle" personalities"; and not very aggressive. The problem is that in today's competative and aggressive world, a profession needs a different type if it is to compete with other professions in the scamble to get top dollar.

2. Another reason is that gardeners are often plant lovers, artists or scientists first ad only become managers or businessmen outr of necessity. 

You don't necessarily need to change your intrinsic nature in order to succeed in horticulture; but if eithere of these iussues relate to you; you may need to face these weaknesses and consciously attempt to overcome them.

Study may be one way of doing this:

Click to see Horticultural Management Programs

Click here for RHS Master of Horticulture (Management oriented degree level program awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society, UK)

There are also good books that can help you develop management or business skills.

BOOKS

Consider the following written by our principal (click to order):

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Extract from our course notes....

HORTICULTURAL MARKETS

MARKET TYPES

Monopoly

·         Goods or services that have no close substitutes are sold by one company– ie. utility companies (electricity, gas etc.).

·         Barriers are set to block new businesses from entry.

Monopolistic Competition

·         Competition between many different companies producing similar products (with only small differences) ie. shoes, tubs of yoghurt etc.

·         Each company producing the product is the sole producer of that particular version – this is called branding.

·         These businesses still compete with each other to capture market share even though they have a monopoly on their own brand.

Branding is increasingly more prevalent in horticulture – for example apples, oranges, melons and so on may have brand name stickers on each of them. Lettuce is sold (pre-packaged) in air-tight branded bags. However branding is not feasible with some produce such as potatoes and onions.

Branding is also expanding in the ornamental plant business ie. plants may be subject to restrictions through PVR (plant varieties rights – one grower bred the plant and registered a copyright); plants may have a registered brand name – the plant may only be sold under this name by the registering business.

Oligopoly

·         Small numbers of companies compete and dominate in an industry.

·         Products might be very similar.

·         Products may be branded.

Perfect Competition

Examples of perfect competition: commodities, particularly farming commodities.            

·         An identical product is sold by many different companies to many buyers.

·         Entry or exit to the market is unrestricted – and is also aligned to cost of production as compared to total revenue.

·         An established business does not have an advantage over a new business.

·         Both sellers and buyers are well informed on prices – supply and demand ie. the intersection of the supply and demand curve sets the price.

·         Production rates are determined by revenue – producers set how much they will produce at a level that ensures a profit (ie. total revenue minus total cost equals maximum profit. For example it may be profitable to produce 500 tons of wheat but a loss may be made if only one ton is produced). In order to stay in business it is realistic to assume that revenue should exceed production costs.

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS AND TRADABLE COMMODITIES

Tradable commodities are goods within an economy which are imported or exported or could potentially be imported or exported. Many agricultural crops and products that are imported or cash crops for export are known as tradable commodities.

What is the difference between tradable and non-tradable commodities?

·         Non-tradable commodities are goods and services which are not traded outside of a countries boarders usually because cost of export or import of these goods makes international trade prohibitive or because the nature of the goods means they cannot be physically traded across boarders ie. public services, land and housing, highly perishables etc. 

·         Prices and terms of trade for tradable commodities are set by world markets at world market prices and are subject to exchange rate variables.

·         Prices for non-tradable commodities are set through domestic supply and demand.

In agriculture and horticulture (as well as many other industries) some of the goods and services produced are internationally tradable commodities. This means that managers in these industries must have a solid understanding of what the term implies. In agriculture for example wheat is a tradable commodity – many producers pool together their wheat harvest to trade on the international market. There is no prejudice as to quality, price and the amount each producer grows – however there are strict guidelines as to minimum quality standards that need to be followed. 

The price set for commodities are prone to many variables that include:

·         The size of the import and export market.

·         Trade barriers – tariffs, protected markets etc.

·         The position of world market economies.

·         Correct market information.

The line between what is tradable and non-tradable is constantly shifting as more commodities are put forward as potentially tradable ie. education, carbon etc.

Some commodities are difficult to define and may only be tradable in some circumstances eg. food commodities (ie perishables)  may be tradable when they are close to the trading boarders of other countries but not tradable when they are produced in remote areas.

Sometimes commodities which were tradable become non-tradable eg. due to floods or drought a food crop may be needed and traded locally. The parameters for what is or isn’t tradable are therefore flexible and shift according to circumstance.

Australian Correspondence Schools incorp. Australian Horticultural Correspondence School

Established in 1979 by well known garden author, editor, nurseryman, landscape designer, John Mason. The college offers 150 different garden and horticulture courses, for general interest, careers, professional or job development. For full range go to http://www.hortcourses.com/courses/catlist.aspx