Dounan Market’s 14 billion stem boom

KUNMING: The Dounan Flower Market, Asia’s largest freshcut flower trading hub, saw transactions rise 5 per cent to 14.18 billion stems in 2024, with a total value of 11.57 billion yuan (US$1.61 billion). Leading China’s flower trade for 25 consecutive years, Dounan— located in Kunming’s Chenggong district—is the world’s secondlargest fresh-cut flower market. Its flowers reach every Chinese province and over 50 countries, including Japan and Thailand. Commercial cultivation began in the 1990s, and by 1999, Dounan housed China’s first professional flower market. Today, it supplies seven in 10 fresh-cut flowers in China and anchors the country’s position as the world’s top flower producer. China cultivates 1.5 million hectares of flowers, employing over five million people. A government guideline aims to push annual flower sales to 300 billion yuan by 2025 and 700 billion yuan by 2035. – BERNAMA