'Top Flower' hopes to extend its fragrance worldwide

For Shi Jianhua, chairman of Shanghai Flower and Horticulture (Group) Co Ltd (SFG) which produces 150 million seedlings and 2.2 million potted flowers annually, he has a grand vision for his company — blooming across China and extending fragrance the world over.

Industrial leader SFG, dubbed a "Top Flower" and based in the Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Area, has seven production bases in Shanghai, Yunnan, Shaanxi, and other regions, adhering to its philosophy that "having one's own varieties is the key to a firm's competitiveness".

Through collaboration with top-tier international breeding companies and acquiring the world's second-largest bromeliad seedling supplier, SFG now holds 90 percent of the global bromeliad seed source market and produces 70 million seedlings each year, Shi said.

Since 2017, the group has successively developed 24 new flower varieties and obtained more than 20 patents, with some varieties becoming market hits, he said.

In its 330,000-square-meter intelligent greenhouse, SFG is using AI (artificial intelligence) camera grading system to raise the authenticity rate of anthurium, a rare flowering and foliage plant, to 95 percent, reducing production costs by 20 percent and netting an annual revenue exceeding 1.2 billion yuan ($166 million).

On April 25, SFG kicked off the 2025 China (Shanghai) Garden Festival at its Four Seasons Flower Harbor, with the theme "Symbiosis of Cities and Nature".

The month-long "green carnival", a new cultural and tourism landmark in the Yangtze River Delta region, aims to showcase SFG's strong capabilities as an industry leader.

In 2010, SFG made its mark as the designated flower supplier for the China Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. And in 2019, the group took the limelight at the 10th China Flower Expo, stunning the nation with a 1.37 million square meters of landscape displays and 30 million pots of flowers.

Shi said SFG has upgraded its 720 mu (48 hectares) of Flower Port from a single tulip exhibition to a cultural and tourism complex with "blooming flowers in all four seasons", attracting 60,000 visitors in 2024, doubling the number of arrivals in 2023.

"We aim to be the foundation of flower services for Shanghai residents," Shi said.

He stressed that SFG is taking a three-pronged approach to boost its expansion — leveraging technology, branding and culture.

With better technologies, SFG renovated a 200,000-square-meter old base into smart zones for anthurium and lilies in 2024, promoting the deep integration of AI and flowers.

For better branding, it strengthened its SFG brand through intellectual property operations such as the garden festival and partnered with international companies to set up industry benchmarks.

In addition, SFG is pursuing a corporate culture of "cleanliness, responsibility, loyalty and warmth", by cultivating over 200 technical pioneers, while its model worker innovation studio has become a talent incubator, Shi said.

He emphasized that the company has turned itself from an "expo supplier" to a "seed source controller" in a bid to perfect its industrial layout.

Back in 2024, to bolster its cultural and tourism integration and innovation, SFG launched the first China Flower Cultural and Tourism Industry Forum, ushering in a "horticulture + business + tourism" model.