The floral industry involves flower production, distribution, design, retailing, and other aspects of flower markets. Floriculture as an industry began in the late 19th century in the United Kingdom, where flowers were grown on a large scale on vast estates. The present day floral industry has achieved significant growth rates during the past few decades. In the 1950s, the global flower trade was less than 3 billion USD. By 1994, it had grown to 100 billion USD. In recent years, the floral industry has grown six percent annually, while the global trade volume in 2003 was 101.84 billion USD.

The floral industry essentially consists of three major components: growers, wholesalers, and retailers. The recent trends are more towards eliminating intermediaries, the wholesalers between the growers and the retailers, to lower costs.