Welcome

The purpose of this project is to assess the competitive challenges facing northwest Ohio's greenhouse nursery industry. The project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the research team comprises faculty and staff from The University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Ohio State University, and Indiana State University. The research team acknowledges the assistance of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in securing the funds for this project.

Since the project's inception in 2003 the research team has been helping northwest Ohio's greenhouse industry identify ways in which it can retain its competitive edge in an increasingly hostile competitive environment. Much of these efforts have focused around organizing northwest Ohio's greenhouse industry as an industrial cluster. The objective of an industrial cluster is to encourage individual growers to come together and engage in collaborative problem solving. As a result of these efforts the northwest Ohio greenhouse growers have now started to work together under the umbrella of the Maumee Valley Growers.