Statscan releases sod and nursery workforce and revenue data

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) released data on the sod and nursery sectors in Canada. The dataset compares sales and staff numbers from 2014 to 2021.

Canadian sales from nurseries and sod operations to landscape contractors, garden centres, mass merchandisers, nursery stock growers, and other buyers all increased in 2021 compared to 2020. The combined sales ($897,154,000) have steadily risen over the past six years, but are still below the 2015 peak of $916,472,000.

Although overall sales are up, the number of nurseries, sod farms, and employees are at the lowest point since 2014-2015, having decreased seven per cent for nurseries and four per cent for sod operations over the last seven years.

Canada’s nursery stock sales topped out at $747,457,000 in 2021. Historically, numbers had been rising from 2008 to 2015, but then took a dip. Sales hit a low in 2017 but have risen 11 per cent since then. National sod sales reached $149,697,000 in 2021, up from the past few years but some $13 million shy of their 2012 peak.

Production was booming in 2011, when the number of nurseries in Canada jumped 78 per cent, from 1,526 to 2,721. It did not last, however, as the number of nurseries has declined steadily since. In 2021, only 1,840 remained, down from 1,993 in 2020.

View the StatsCan data at: data.ontario.ca/dataset/nursery-trades-industry-statistics.