Sales of Deep Purple rose developed by GARES grow 20-fold in three years since launch

◇ The thornless rose Deep Purple (photo) developed by Gyeonggi Province have emerged as a hot seller with sales of over a million units in just two years. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News

With sales of over a million units within two years of its launch, the thornless rose Deep Purple developed by Gyeonggi Province have emerged as the hottest seller among the province’s exported roses.

According to the Gyeonggi-do Agricultural Research & Extension Services (GARES) on February 13, a total of 49,900 Deep Purple roses were sold within the first year of the variety’s launch (2011), followed by 423,625 units in 2012 and 1,033,058 units in 2013, growing over 20-fold. Royalties for GARES also increased along with the rise in global sales, from USD 29,000 in the first year to USD 610,000 last year (KRW 610 million).

The Green Beauty, which was released in 2009 and the first rose to be exported, had sales of only 217,010 units up to 2013. The Rock Fire had sales of only 103,580 units, Ice Bear 30,490 units and Silver Shadow 16,180 units, all falling behind Deep Purple. These four rose varieties all have thorns.

“The value of the global rose market is estimated at KRW 1.2 trillion, and the thornless rose market accounts for approximately 10%,” said Lee Young-soon, Team Leader of the Horticulture Industrial Research Division at GARES. “Gyeonggi’s thornless rose is only at an early stage with a market share of 0.1%, but we look forward to its growth as it is well received by overseas market.”

With the increasing popularity of thornless roses, GARES is also accelerating new product development and exports. GARES developed a large red rose called the Love Letter in 2011, and has already supplied 200,000 roses to three farmhouses in Gimhae. GARES also developed a pink mid-sized rose called Lovely Day in December last year, which is poised for supply to farmhouses in Korea this year and also has seed sales to Kenya slated.

◇ Along with thornless roses, the large Pink Heart rose is also gaining popularity in the Korean market. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News

“Thornless roses are gaining popularity with consumers and farmers because they are easy to use for decoration and convenient to harvest in farmhouses,” said an official of the GARES. “Distributors also prefer thornless roses as their petals and leaves are less likely to be damaged during the sorting and shipping process, so their popularity will continue for a while.”Along with thornless roses, the large Pink Heart rose is also gaining popularity in the Korean market. Supplied to four farmhouses in Paju and distributed in the domestic flower market, the Pink Heart is sold at a higher price than other regular foreign varieties (KRW 6,000) with an auction price of KRW 7,000-10,000 for ten roses at the Yangjaedong Flower Market. This makes expansion to overseas markets likely in the future.

GARES completed the development of five thornless rose varieties this year such as Gyeonggyo D1-60 (red) and Gyeonggyo D1-63 (light pink), and will release them to farmhouses and consumers through a flower fair this coming April.

So far, GARES has developed 46 rose varieties, selling 1.87 million seeds to 17 countries worldwide and receiving KRW 120 million in royalties. It supplied 1.74 million roses to domestic farmhouses, realizing an import substitution effect of KRW 1.8 billion. Gyeonggi Province signed an agreement with the global flower company Olij Rozen, a global flower company in the Netherlands, and Wonwoo Trading back in 2008, and has been exporting Gyeonggi provincial roses overseas since 2009.

ⓒGyeonggi G-News | Chun Kyeong-nam ckn0403@kg21.net 

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