Narcissus and Daffodil

Table 4.3 Dutch exports and imports of Narcissus bulbs (1990 figures) a
Note
a From PVS (1990a,b).
Production of Narcissus bulbs 57
by supplies from the UK, along with Tazetta bulbs from Israel (PVS, 1990a,b).
The trade in narcissus bulbs between the UK and the Netherlands consists largely
of bulbs of ‘mainstream’ cultivars (sold by weight) exported from the UK to the
Netherlands, and bulbs of ‘choicer’ cultivars (sold by number) traded in the opposite
direction. UK also exports bulbs to Germany, North America, Scandinavia and
France. UK exports of bulbs (predominantly narcissus) were valued at £9.451 m in
1998, while imports of narcissus bulbs amounted to £3.462 m (MAFF, 1999a).
Israel exports some 30 million Tazetta bulbs annually (I. Gerstein and H. Lilien-
Kipnis, personal communication), to the Netherlands and the USA, while China
and Japan export small quantities to the USA (Oldfield, 1989). US imports about
120 million narcissus bulbs annually (Gould, 1993), including some 90 million
from the Netherlands (1994–1995 figures, W.B. Miller, personal communication).
The Netherlands and UK also export large volumes of narcissus cut-flowers. On
the assumption that narcissus make up the bulk of the cut-flower exports from the
UK, these were valued at over £10m in 1998 (MAFF, 1999a). Pot-grown dwarf
narcissus are an important export from the Netherlands: sales of pot narcissus in
Germany reached 1.79 million in 1998 (Heinricks, 1999).
Cultivars grown
Exports Imports
Number (million) Weight (1000 t) Number (million) Weight (1000 t)
Austria 9 0.7 0 0
Belgium and
Luxembourg
6 0.4 0 0
Canada 11 0.6 0 0
Denmark 8 0.4 0 0
Finland 7 0.6 0 0
France 29 1.6 8 0.3
Germany 88 5.6 4 0.2
Israel 0 0 11 0.5
Italy 4 0.2 0 0
Norway 4 0.3 0 0
Sweden 13 1.0 0 0
Switzerland 8 0.5 0 0
UK 37 1.3 50 2.8
USA 70 4.0 0 0
Total 294 17.2 73 3.8
Full statistics for the cultivars grown are available only for the Netherlands, and
they are summarised in Table 4.4 by cultivar groups and in Table 4.5 by top
cultivars. In recent years, the main change has been the expansion in growing
Cyclamineus types (now 30% of the total narcissus area), predominantly involving