Hall: Growers Should Be Confident

Charlie Hall, chairholder of the Ellison Chair at Texas A&M University, spoke to growers on the first day of the Southeast Greenhouse Conference. Hall gave growers plenty of reasons to be optimistic about their future. A few of reasons he cited are:

-New home sales are finally increasing again.
-The stock market has improved and returned to the position it was pre-October 2008.
-Consumer confidence is improving.
-The weather reminded us the industry is recession proof

"The past six recessions (in U.S. history) occured during unfavorable weather years," Hall says. "Whether you have bad snowstorms or wet weather, sales tend to decline."

Hall offered a refreshing reminder about the housing market, too.

"More people can afford to buy a house today than at any point in U.S. history," he says. "Housting starts actually increased last month. Now, we just need a little bit of a sign that there's a turnaround."

Hall told his grower audience we're most likely out of the recession right now. Consumer spending this spring attests to it, but we won't officially know we're out of the recession until the numbers are crunched sometime next year.

"Recession is a normal part of business," Hall says. "The reality is recessions are a necessary part of business to curb inflation."