Floriculture world wide; production, trade and consumption patterns show market opportunities and challenges

Floricultural production contains a wide variety of products. The production value world wide has been rising from 11 billion to 60 billion dollars in 2003 (estimate). Europe is traditionally a large producer and trader, with a stable production value of about 10 billion dollars (2002). North America has a production value of about 6,5 billion dollars. In Asia production capacity is growing rapidly in several countries. In Africa the production has emerged enormously, but in a risky environment. Oceania is a small producer. Looking a inter- and intra continental trade in 2002 the following view occurs. Europe and USA have the largest intra continental trade. Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe export to these continents. Of the existing markets USA has emerged the last decade. Further more the consumption per capita has been rising due to rise of income and developments in culture in countries in Europe, USA and Japan. Asia and Easter Europe have big potential as new markets because the level of prosperity is rising. Totally the worldwide demand has grown. For high volume bulky product we see a South-North pattern. For high quality product there are niche markets world wide. While we see the international trade increasing, the regional supply will be leading. Parallel WTO liberalises the world trade, non-trade barriers occur. This, together with changing from a product driven to a demand driven market, requires strategies for market access. Co-operation in supply chains offers possibilities.Production, Crop Production/Industries,

A metagenomic portrait of the microbial community responsible for two decades of bioremediation of poly-contaminated groundwater

Biodegradation of pollutants is a sustainable and cost-effective solution to groundwater pollution. Here, we investigate microbial populations involved in biodegradation of poly-contaminants in a pipeline for heavily contaminated groundwater. Groundwater moves from a polluted park to a treatment plant, where an aerated bioreactor effectively removes the contaminants. While the biomass does not settle in the reactor, sediment is collected afterwards and used to seed the new polluted groundwater via a backwash cycle. The pipeline has successfully operated since 1999, but the biological components in the reactor and the contaminated park groundwater have never been described. We sampled seven points along the pipeline, representing the entire remediation process, and characterized the changing microbial communities using genome-resolved metagenomic analysis. We assembled 297 medium- and high-quality metagenome-assembled genome sequences representing on average 46.3% of the total DNA per sample. We found that the communities cluster into two distinct groups, separating the anaerobic communities in the park groundwater from the aerobic communities inside the plant. In the park, the community is dominated by members of the genus Sulfuricurvum, while the plant is dominated by generalists from the order Burkholderiales. Known aromatic compound biodegradation pathways are four times more abundant in the plant-side communities compared to the park-side. Our findings provide a genome-resolved portrait of the microbial community in a highly effective groundwater treatment system that has treated groundwater with a complex contamination profile for two decades

Floriculture world wide; production, trade and consumption patterns show market opportunities and challenges

Floricultural production contains a wide variety of products. The production value world wide has been rising from 11 billion to 60 billion dollars in 2003 (estimate). Europe is traditionally a large producer and trader, with a stable production value of about 10 billion dollars (2002). North America has a production value of about 6,5 billion dollars. In Asia production capacity is growing rapidly in several countries. In Africa the production has emerged enormously, but in a risky environment. Oceania is a small producer. Looking a inter- and intra continental trade in 2002 the following view occurs. Europe and USA have the largest intra continental trade. Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe export to these continents. Of the existing markets USA has emerged the last decade. Further more the consumption per capita has been rising due to rise of income and developments in culture in countries in Europe, USA and Japan. Asia and Easter Europe have big potential as new markets because the level of prosperity is rising. Totally the worldwide demand has grown. For high volume bulky product we see a South-North pattern. For high quality product there are niche markets world wide. While we see the international trade increasing, the regional supply will be leading. Parallel WTO liberalises the world trade, non-trade barriers occur. This, together with changing from a product driven to a demand driven market, requires strategies for market access. Co-operation in supply chains offers possibilities

A metagenomic portrait of the microbial community responsible for two decades of bioremediation of poly-contaminated groundwater

Biodegradation of pollutants is a sustainable and cost-effective solution to groundwater pollution. Here, we investigate microbial populations involved in biodegradation of poly-contaminants in a pipeline for heavily contaminated groundwater. Groundwater moves from a polluted park to a treatment plant, where an aerated bioreactor effectively removes the contaminants. While the biomass does not settle in the reactor, sediment is collected afterwards and used to seed the new polluted groundwater via a backwash cycle. The pipeline has successfully operated since 1999, but the biological components in the reactor and the contaminated park groundwater have never been described. We sampled seven points along the pipeline, representing the entire remediation process, and characterized the changing microbial communities using genome-resolved metagenomic analysis. We assembled 297 medium- and high-quality metagenome-assembled genome sequences representing on average 46.3% of the total DNA per sample. We found that the communities cluster into two distinct groups, separating the anaerobic communities in the park groundwater from the aerobic communities inside the plant. In the park, the community is dominated by members of the genus Sulfuricurvum, while the plant is dominated by generalists from the order Burkholderiales. Known aromatic compound biodegradation pathways are four times more abundant in the plant-side communities compared to the park-side. Our findings provide a genome-resolved portrait of the microbial community in a highly effective groundwater treatment system that has treated groundwater with a complex contamination profile for two decades