British horticulture sells almost totally into its home market. Possessing a strong domestic trade is a business advantage that is envied by many other industries, but not turning that into a lucrative export trade is seen as a failure in the Government's eyes.

The National Horticulture Forum's (NHF) Promar report targeted the absence of exports as British horticulture's key structural weakness.

Britain's horticultural marketing structure changed dramatically with the advent of supermarket sales of fresh produce and unfettered importing from round the world.

Successive government economic advisers in the Treasury have seen no reason why domestic horticulture should be supported in opposing these imports. Quite the reverse, supporting home production of fresh produce was (and is) seen as impeding other sources of trade. Potentially, it blocks opportunities for exports made by other industries.

Consequently, horticulture's home market has increasingly come to include imported fresh produce sold via supermarkets and nursery products going via 'the sheds'. This structure bears out much of the 1980s Strathclyde Report, which foresaw the consequences of changing from wholesaling to directly servicing retailers.

More than 90 per cent of fresh produce sells through supermarkets. Their robust, some would argue domineering, buying policies demand that British producers match the prices of imports. Potentially, however, these policies are blind to the hidden subsidies and failures of assurance protocols in third countries.

Horticulture's main business failure is the lack of a strong export flow. It cannot point at significant foreign currency earnings and consequently a positive contribution to Britain's balance of payments.

As a result it has little or no credibility in Whitehall and Westminster. Lord Mandelson's revamped Department of Trade is interested only in business and industry sectors capable of providing foreign earnings.

Ironically, the current recession provides the right moment for a sea change in horticultural attitudes to exporting.

Not least there are markets on our doorstep that are wide open for business. The pound is at an advantageous low value against the euro, Britain implements all EU legislation for safety, quality and value, and there is genuine European interest in British products.

Getting started

The first ports of call for assistance are UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) (www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk) and the independent Commercial Horticulture Association (CHA) (www.cha-hort.com and info@cha-hort.com).

The UKTI is a government interdepartmental body combining the export activities of BERR (Department for Business, Enterprises & Regulatory Reform, previously the Department of Trade & Industry, DTI) and the FCO (Foreign & Commonwealth Office) giving access to Britain's Commercial Counsellors. Companies with ambitions to enter export markets are advised to make maximum use of staff in the embassies, high commissions and consulates worldwide. In particular, they help through the International Trade Advisers and Passport to Export Scheme.

The CHA is a private trade association and since 1978 it has especially helped secondary horticultural supply industries gain access into export markets. Companies are helped in displaying their products at trade fairs throughout Europe and, increasingly, globally. Horticulture's supply industries are making good inroads into exporting. The CHA has won the accolade of the Government's Accredited Trade Organisation for Horticulture.

Specialist support areas

The Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) site in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, is developing rapidly as a substantial land-based hub. Organisations including the NFU, Lantra, HDC, CHA, BALI and the International Agri-Technology Centre (IATC) (www.theiatc.org) have their headquarters at Stoneleigh.

Specialist research by IATC finds potential foreign markets. They have already found foreign markets for science, technology and education underpinning the fresh produce sector. British horticulture is second to none in the application of new science, and consequently the technology developments are attractive to overseas growers. Reverse opportunities exist for British fresh produce growers that use IATC's expertise and, as a result, develop profitable overseas partnerships. Some companies followed this route in southern Europe, where developing production facilities (eg Vitacress) ensured continuous flows of fresh produce back into supermarkets.

Defra (when it was MAFF) was historically the channel designed for supporting Britain's horticultural and agricultural exports. This responsibility has been ended and passed to IATC. Advantage West Midlands, Royal Agricultural Society and UK Trade & Investment collaborate together, with IATC providing export support for the whole land-based sector from the Stoneleigh hub.

Show time

The CHA is the source for UKTI's Tradeshow Access Funding (TAP). This helps horticultural companies attend and exhibit at high-profile events, offering gateways into overseas markets.

Similarly, growers should make use of the Overseas Market Introduction Scheme (OMIS), which puts exporters in contact with staff in UKTI's overseas offices, and then supports visits to customers and business partners abroad.

Market entry demands much detailed advance research and intelligence gathering on topics including: market size and segmentation; regulations and legislation; customer needs, usage and attitudes; distribution channels; trends and competitor activity; and strategy and performance.

A subsidised service to gather this information is offered by the British Chambers of Commerce's Export Marketing Research Scheme (EMRS). This scheme offers small companies (which includes most of Britain's horticulture) pound-for-pound support for market research.

The autumnal Dutch Hortifair is a good place to begin exporting. A visit and then an exploratory exhibit at Hortifair is an excellent route into exporting. This show is held on the southern outskirts of Amsterdam near Schiphol Airport. It attracts about 50,000 trade visitors and 950 exhibitors. And it is the "must go" place for British exporters who treat Hortifair as "our own event".

One exhibitor said: "I have just seen five key buyers who I have been trying to contact for six months and have now spent an hour with each of them."

The German IPM Essen (www.ipm-messe-essen.de) concentrates on nursery stock and pot plants. Some of the largest growers buy sundries at IPM Essen, getting great deals on pots and packaging, for example.

IPM is large (17 halls), even compared with Hortifair's 11 halls. It is sited in Essen, close to the largest and most affluent German urban population in the Ruhr Valley.

France has an early spring time (February) show, the Salon du Vegetal at Angers in the Loire Valley.

This huge area of horticulture is set in the most fertile soils of central France, where several key horticultural research and educational organisations are based. Its focus is domestic sales, and fluency in French is a prerequisite for success. It provides a market of 16,000 visitors.

The CHA is developing opportunities for British exporters at exhibitions in Kenya and the Middle East. Niche flower and fresh produce marketing opportunities are developing at shows in Singapore, Korea, the US and South America.

Successes and opportunities

Guernsey Clematis, Ray Evison's company, has a £2m per year business, built on exporting his range of Clematis cultivars. Ray's breeding programme uses discoveries made by his plant hunting expeditions and resultant hybrids propagated in isolation on Guernsey.

The result is a string of new patented cultivars that are popular in the US. Exporting to North America demands strict adherence to plant health laws. Guernsey Clematis removes all root-growing media and packs plants for rapid air freighting and ease of inspection.

The sophistication of the Guernsey Clematis procedures is such that they are also patented. This intellectual property forms a valuable asset included on the balance sheet in its own right.

Other companies have niche products of high value and have used them in carving out export markets. These include the Cox family at Glendoick in Perthshire, who have bred Rhododendron hybrids for three generations, David Austin Roses in the West Midlands, and Whetman's Pinks in Devon.

Exporters must offer products with reliably high quality that no-one else matches. For example, Britain's fresh produce industry grows several products that are viewed as uncommon and attractive in mainland Europe, including parsnips. These have apparent benefits for human health, creating a demand cache in high-class restaurants that offer parsnip juice and thin fresh sliced parsnip crisps.

Other, similar, opportunities exist for exploiting Britain's climatic advantages and consequently our unusual crops.

Exporting is hard work and requires finding and filling niche markets with quality products and ensuring the continuous satisfaction of your customers.

Professor Geoff Dixon is managing director of GreenGene International.