How women are changing the horticulture industry this Earth Day

Here in South Florida, one company with women at the helm hoping to encourage other women to join the horticulture industry.

“I started in Costa Farms about 25 years ago, and at the time I was a single mother," said Senior Sales Director, Janet Rodriguez. "And my mother and my aunt both worked at costa farms at the time,”

What started off as a small mom and pop business has grown to 6,000 employees.

“Today we are about 5,300 acres of product and we grow 1,500 varieties,” said Rodriguez.

For years the horticulture industry has had a perception of being predominantly male dominated, but that’s no longer the case.

According to CareerExplorer, 63% of horticulturalists are female, doing everything from farming, engineering, marketing and operations.

“In my position, as senior director, almost 50% of those positions are held by women," Rodriguez said. "And what’s more impressive is our succession planning. There’s 91 succession plans in the company and 73 of those plans have women in leading positions of those plans.”

But there’s still room for improvement.

According to a report by World Economic Forum, only 23% of women are in leadership positions in the agricultural field.

These South Florida women are the trailblazers hoping to inspire other women to enter the industry.

“As women leaders, we have been blessed enough to have had other women leaders that have paved the way for us, and they believed in us, and we have this sense of responsibility to do this for others," said Director of Global Sourcing, Michelle Rodriguez.

Costa Farms works year-round to make the bulk of their revenue in just three months.

“You can have in your hand a plant that took 18 months to grow and that’s where quality and care come in,” said Rodriguez. “Anywhere from the person who is on the line potting the product, to the person who is taking it on the field, spacing it out, to the growers who are going everyday giving it it’s TLC, to the person who is pulling and pulling making sure there is no disease.”

It’s a growing industry only expected to continue flourishing.

According to a report by Global Market Estimates, in 2021, the global horticulture market was valued at more than $20 billion.

By 2026, it’s expected to double, and these are the women to thank -- using new innovations to reach a younger consumer base, and elevating their employees.

Janet provides an example of paying employees to attend classes to learn life skills like reading and writing.

“Last year, in our graduating class, 77% of them were women, and this year 76% of them are women. In all of what we’ve told you, if that doesn’t show you what women in horticulture can do," Janet said. "We are fighters, we want to grow, we want to learn.”

The goal is to keep the love of plants thriving for generations to come.

“Our hope is to engage the consumer to bring plants so that their children will see and have that memory of house plants around it really brings life and joy and such a reward to have it grow year after year, and your kids see that and believe it or not, that’s a memory they are going to have," Janet said.