November 24th is celebrated as Teacher's Day in Turkey and most students and their parents give flowers and plants to teachers on this special day. As a result, the floriculture industry experienced increased activity leading to this day as growers harvested and sent their flowers to the auctions in early and mid-November. All auctions and florists across Turkey saw increased activity in the week leading to Teacher's Day.
Sales increased dramatically at the auction held at the Sariyer, Istanbul branch of Flora Cicekcilik Production and Marketing Cooperative. While the flowers were displayed on the moving walkway, florists who wanted to buy the product for sale competed with each other.
Muammer Yazici, Chairman of the Flower Growers Cooperative, said, "This is the flower market. Since the beginning of the week, flower shopkeepers and vendors in Turkey had been preparing for the 24 November Teachers' Day and started buying flowers. Prices started to rise as of Monday. There were nearly 240 customers in this auction hall alone. Our cooperative has 18 different auction halls in Turkey. Approximately 15,000 boxes of flowers were offered for sale in all auction halls. All our halls offered their flowers for sale in similar quantities. Chrysanthemum flowers were the most popular variety in this time of the season."
Florist Selcuk Kahraman, who participated in the auction, stated that he has been in the industry for 30 years and said, "It was a little more hectic on special days like this. Since the prices were higher than normal due to the high demand, the auction was more intense and competitive. When it is busy like this, the prices, in a sense, skyrocket."
In Antalya, where a significant portion of cut flower production takes place in Turkey, there was also increased activity at the flower auction in the city due to Teacher's Day. Antalya Florists Chamber Board Member Yusuf Akin told that the flower auctions in the city have been busy for 15 days due to Teacher's Day. Akin noted that many florists from Antalya's districts as well as surrounding provinces came to the auction and bought flowers. The flowers sold at the auction were sold to be given to teachers. Akin said, "Flowers of every color have a meaning. White represents purity and cleanliness, and red represents love. The best gift is a flower, both the giver and the recipient are pleased. All our teachers have hopefully received bunches of flowers in their arms and we hope they all left the school with a smile on their faces on this special day."
In Sanliurfa, florists had difficulty keeping up with orders. The most preferred choices of students and their parents who wanted to celebrate this special day were orchids, cacti, roses and, potted flowers.
Florist Mustafa Yildirim said, “The most preferred flowers were orchids, daisies and roses. Our average rose price is around 1 USD per stem, while potted flowers vary between 10 to 18 USD."
Source: Dunya / Son Dakika / Urfa Fanatik