Nigeria’s exports of cut flowers and flower buds rose sharply in the second quarter of 2026, highlighting an agricultural trade category that is capable of generating billions of naira but remains difficult to track consistently across different datasets.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recorded ₦31.43 billion in exports of cut flowers and flower buds for ornamental purposes in the second quarter of 2026, compared with ₦12.23 billion in the first quarter. That represents a 157 percent quarter-on-quarter increase.
The figure was reported by PM News on September 14, 2026, as part of its review of Nigeria’s agricultural export performance. Cut flowers ranked among the country’s top agricultural export products for the quarter, although they remained far behind major commodities such as standard-quality cocoa beans, which generated ₦154.31 billion.
The size of the quarterly movement is notable because Nigeria’s flower trade has recorded large swings in the past. Floral Daily, citing NBS foreign-trade data, reported in 2024 that the value of Nigeria’s cut-flower and flower-bud exports rose from ₦15.05 billion in 2022 to ₦86.63 billion in 2023.
The historical figures suggest that the latest increase should be viewed cautiously. Rather than establishing a steady growth path, they point to a highly volatile export category whose value can change substantially from one reporting period to another.
Part of the difficulty in assessing the sector is how flower products are classified. International trade databases can use narrower product codes than the broader NBS category. The Observatory of Economic Complexity, for example, tracks individual flower classifications separately, meaning its figures are not directly comparable with the full NBS category.
Trade-shipment records also show Nigerian exports under several flower-related codes, including fresh cut flowers and other cut flowers and flower buds. Recent records include Nigerian hibiscus shipments classified under these categories.
That classification gap matters because a large naira value in Nigeria’s national trade statistics does not automatically translate into the same value in a narrower international product category.
For Nigerian florists and growers, the numbers nevertheless raise a bigger question: what exactly is driving the sharp movements in flower exports, which producers are supplying the trade, where the flowers are going and how much of the recorded export value is reaching domestic growers?
The Q2 data establishes that the category is commercially significant enough to appear prominently in Nigeria’s agricultural export statistics. It does not yet establish why the numbers move so sharply.
For now, the clearest picture is of a flower-export market with significant reported value, substantial volatility and limited publicly available detail on the businesses and growers behind the trade.
