Over the last years, the indoor green plants have skyrocketed in popularity in many countries. In Sweden too. However, the availability seems to be limited as the trendy tropical plants are not easy nor cheap to grow in this country. Therefore, many are being imported and interestingly most are said to come from the US. According to Julia Cederquist, who is Swedish herself, importing from this far overseas country is unnecessary. Therefore, she decided to start up her own company, importing tropical plants from EU growers.
New way to decorate homes
According to Cederquist, the demand for indoor plants in Sweden have risen very quickly in the last couple of years. "In my opinion the Swedish interior have been very minimalist for many years and houseplants have just started to become trendy. I think people have been bored of the minimalist style and are now exploring new ways to decorate their homes. Now it is very trendy to style your home or office with plants and nice pots."
Why import?
The majority of the flowers and particularly the trendy topical flowers like Philodendrons, Aroids and Monsteras, are being imported. "The growing conditions here in Sweden are harsh. In the winter the air gets very dry and that makes growing tropical plants very challenging. If a grower tries to grow these plants in a greenhouse they will need a lot of grow lights and humidifiers which makes the total costs higher than if you import the plant instead. On top of that, Sweden does not have a history of growing houseplants so we do not have that much growers with the required knowledge."
Cederquist explains that the majority of the plants are imported from the US, but she never really understood why the potential of importing from other EU countries haven't been exploited. "I think that ordering plant from America is unnecessary and expensive when there are growers within the EU with a lot of experience and knowledge of growing indoor plants. Importing plants from America entails paying extra for shipping and taxes. On top of that, by reducing the imports from remote countries we also reduce the emission of gas in our atmosphere and at the same time we benefit growers within the EU."
Starting up new company
As she sees a lot of opportunities to import plants from other EU growers, she decided to start her own company, ”Rainy Leaves”. This young entrepreneur is driven and even took a break in her college studies to fully focus on her company and get it up and running.
"My vision is that I will import plants from EU growers and sell them through a web shop in Sweden. The company will offer the trendiest plants on the market to the customers who won´t have to import them from remote countries with extra fees. At the moment I am searching for growers within the EU who can deliver different kinds of Philodendrons, Aroids and Monsteras."
For more information
Julie Cederquist
Email: juliacederquist@gmail.com