Mid Anatolian Ornamental Plants Exporters Association Chairman Ismail Yilmaz: “Antalya is the center for cut flower production in Turkey and Turkish growers have started to export their products to European countries for Christmas. The demand in European countries have increased as usual before Christmas and Turkish growers are exporting cut flowers to 65 countries, with the bulk of exports going to the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Uzbekistan. This year the growers expect around 8 to 10 million USD export revenue from the export of 60 million stems of cut flowers.
The production of cut flowers and ornamental plants are rapidly improving every year in Turkey and as a result the export figures are consistently increasing as well. We project our export figures for these products to finish off the year with a 30 % increase. We will pass the 100 million USD threshold within this month and our goal is to reach 125 million USD. Our exports are mainly cut flowers. We have some outdoor plant growers as well but their exports are minimal. We are trying to encourage our outdoor plant growers to increase their exports. If we achieve that, then export numbers will increase even further in upcoming years.
Red is the most in demand color, followed by white and purple. Red products almost make up half of the exports in this period. Currently most of our exports are carnations which are easy to grow. Other varieties require more investment and different know-how. We also have problems in finding land for production. If we can solve the land problem and increase our assortment then we can increase our export figures even more. Currently carnation is grown in around 600 hectares in Anttalya which creates jobs for nearly 10,000 people.
60 million USD of exports come from Antalya followed by Izmir, Adana and Yalova. We will look for ways to continue with the same growth rate in 2019.”
Source: Haberler
