AGRICULTURE - Market Sectors ​- Plant products

Live Plants & Flowers

Live plants and floriculture products include live trees, shrubs and bushes and other goods commonly supplied by nursery gardeners or florists for planting or ornamental use. The sector is integrated in the single Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets.
Increasing levels of flower production and cultivation of ornamental plants give the EU one of the world's highest densities of flower production per hectare (10% of total world area and 44% of world flower and pot-plant production).
The EU:
  • is a net exporter of pot plants, conifers and hardy perennial plants and bulbs and corms
  • is a net importer of cut flowers and cut foliage
  • has a net trade surplus for live plants and floriculture products.
The regime for live plants and floriculture products covers all products falling under Chapter 6 of the Combined Nomenclature, and the sector itself is covered by the single CMO regulation (No 1308/2013). The Commission monitors production, market and trade flows in the sector.

EU regime for live plants and floriculture productsIn the framework of the single CMO regulation, the Commission is authorised to:
  • help adjust supply to reflect market requirements by taking measures to:
    • improve quality
    • better organise production, processing and marketing
    • make it easier to track market price trends
    • help establish short and long-term forecasts based on means of production
  • require import licences for certain products, as a tool for managing their markets.
  • fix annually (before the marketing season) one or more minimum prices for exports to non‑EU countries of products falling under CN code 0601 10 (bulbs, tubers, tuberous roots, corms, crowns and rhizomes, dormant). In this case, such products can only be exported at a price equal to or above the minimum fixed price.


The EU has eliminated the marketing standard for live plants in order to boost trade, reduce red tape for farmers and administrators and make the rules more transparent, easier to understand and less burdensome.
To this end, the following regulations were repealed:
  • No 315/68 – quality standards for flowering bulbs, corms and tubers
  • No 316/68 – quality standards for fresh cut flowers and fresh ornamental foliage
  • No 234/68 – common organisation of market in live trees and other plants, bulbs, roots, cut flowers and ornamental foliage.
Slides on Live Plants and Floriculture
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​10/2012​
10/2013​
10/2015
10/2015
10/2016
  • Meetings of the CMO
  • Civil Dialogue Groups
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Meetings of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets - Live plants & Flowers

Legal basis
Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 Search for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007

Summary records (drafted and edited by the European Commission) 
Note: The topics of the meetings are mentioned for information purposes only. They are not necessarily exhaustive.

Civil dialogue Groups - Flowers

The Commission publishes all relevant documents such as agendas, minutes, conclusions, partial conclusions or working documents on the activities carried out by the civil dialogue group on horticulture, spirits, olives and flowers.
Exceptions to systematic publication will be made where disclosure of a document would undermine the protection of a public or private interest as defined in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
02/10/2015 : "Flowers"
10/10/2014 : "Flowers"