Expected results

Due to a lack of national nursery production statistics and peat requirements, the only way to estimate the size of the market is through the use of the Register of Cultivated Plant Propagation Material Production and Trading Enterprises. Based on this, more than 700 companies producing nursery products are active in Greece (considering only license types A, B, C Nursery, which make up the largest part of the market). Based on an average annual production of 50,000 plants per farm in pots with an average volume of 3 L (the volume varies from 0.5 to >10L), the final required volume of peat is estimated at over 100 thousand m3 of peat per year.

If peat sold in retail stores (small packages for various uses) is included as well as peat used in horticultural production greenhouses of many times the area of ​​nurseries (use of peat at the planting site for soil improvement of greenhouse soils), then the final estimated volume is more than double (the minimum over 200 thousand m3).

The peat is 100% imported with a wholesale price of ~50€/m3 which translates into annual costs of at least 10 million euros at the national level. In the UK the use of peat will be phased out by 2024 and the same strategy will be adopted by the EU, making it imperative to replace peat for the sustainability of the markets associated with it.