Florists and horticulturalists are finding it hard to cope with grim market conditions.

In previous years, Spring Festival has always been a busy season for them, with a wide range of conferences and ceremonies resulting in a flood of orders for flowers.

But now, new government regulations have resulted in a dramatic fall in business.

A shopkeeper surnamed Wang for a Beijing-based gardening company said: "Over the past two months, I haven't received any call for orders from our regular clients - units of the armed forces, government departments and public institutions.

"Clients from the armed forces and government departments used to account for about 60 percent of our business and now the proportion has suddenly dropped to almost nothing," he said, without elaborating.

The new regulations, passed in December by China's top leadership, ordered curbs on government extravagance, such as holding banquets. The number of meetings should be cut and spending on conferences, ceremonies and formalities reduced.

Flowers and potted plants used to be the main decorations for halls and chambers where meetings were held, and the large number of conferences at this time of year always brought increased demand, creating a peak season for flower dealers and wholesalers.

Li Zhihui, general manager of a horticultural company with production bases in Beijing and Shanghai, is worrying whether his business can break even this year.

His company sells to retailers who make deals with individual clients and institutional customers. Retailers placing large orders comprise about 20 percent of Li's clients.

"In the past, our annual sales used to be between 20 million and 30 million yuan ($3.2 million and $4.8 million) and the profit margin was more than 10 percent," Li said. "The best result this year will be to break even."

Zhao Han, a retailer at the Huaxiangqiao Flower Market in Beijing for three years, bought 5,000 pots of flowers after taking an order from a regular client - a State-owned enterprise. But the company canceled the deal, and Zhao lost about 40,000 yuan, the Beijing News reported.

Although Li has been seriously hit this year, he said he has not given much thought to a business transformation.

"It's very difficult for an agricultural enterprise to fulfill a transformation, as it usually takes four to five years to develop it to a certain scale," said Li, who has been working in the field for more than a decade.

He put sluggish demand this year down to the new regulations as well as the economic downturn.

Many florists are considering switching to other jobs, the Beijing News reported.

huangying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 01/31/2013 page17)