News » 07.09.2026 - Natural flower sales in Spain drop 43% over the past decade

The market for fresh flowers and plants in Spain is going through a difficult period. According to the latest Green Consumption Report 2025 from the Spanish Florists' Confederation, sales of natural flowers have fallen by 43% over the past decade. Among people under 35, barely 18% buy live plants in any given year.

Ángel Illescas Nombela, a flower grower from Novés, Toledo, has watched this shift unfold firsthand. He founded his nursery 23 years ago, focusing on seasonal flowers and vegetable plants for hobby gardeners. Today, 90% of his output is sold wholesale to nurseries and florists.

"It's a chain, if the shops aren't selling, neither am I," says Illescas, who acknowledges that falling demand and rising costs have made the business increasingly difficult. "Our costs are higher than what we're bringing in. We're operating right at the limit," he says.

Pansies offer one of the starkest examples. "Twenty years ago, in winter, I was growing 80,000 pansies; now it's only 30,000, a drop of more than 50%," he says. Ángel also points to a broader shift in consumer habits. "Young people don't want plants. They'd rather put in a plastic one that doesn't need any looking after," he says.

Faced with this reality, Illescas turned to social media as a new way to reach the public. Three years ago he set up profiles on various platforms, where he has since built an audience of more than half a million followers. He describes it as "a better showcase than television."

Through his videos, he shares growing tips and shows plants being cultivated, with the aim of encouraging people to buy them. "People tell me, 'You're making me want to go out and buy something,' and that's already a win," he says.

For Ángel, changes in lifestyle are also driving the sector's decline. "The way people live has changed. People used to have houses with gardens and vegetable plots; now we live in flats," he says.

 

Source: www.elespanol.com

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