The flowers were delivered from Yalova, a city in northwestern Turkey and one of the biggest cut flower and plant production areas in the country, to the market for Mother’s Day.
The flowers were sent from the greenhouses of the growers to the Turkish Flower Auction in 18 different places across Turkey from where it was purchased by florists and put on sale in their shops for the consumers.
Omer Salman, a grower of cut roses in Yalova, noted that he had his first harvest of products on Mother’s Day. The grower added that they are growing roses specifically for Mother’s Day and sell it mostly in the Turkish Flower Auction. The price of one stem of rose is at 0.25 USD per stem at the grower.
Omer Salman continued: “The production of rose takes up 1.5 years and it is the most in-demand product for Mother’s Day. We plant the seedlings about 1 year ago and after 6 months, we take them away and plant it in greenhouses. After another 6 months, it is ready for harvest.”
Another Yalova grower Onder Erdinc: “Mother’s Day is a very important day for the growers. It is a very busy time for everyone in the industry to ensure that the products are available for consumers on Mother’s Day.”
Ali İhsan Begis, another grower from the same region: “The consumer interest on this day is mostly in roses, gillyflower and daisy. We send products to the auction 5 days of the week all around Turkey, we do not have a problem to find a place to sell our products.”
Speaking on behalf of the Turkish Auction, which is a cooperative of growers, Yalova Auction Agricultural Engineer Onur Ates: “There are 18 auction places all around Turkey, all owned by the cooperative. This is one of the most important days for our industry. The flowers from Yalova started to take more and more space in these auctions. Yalova started to become the leader in summer production. We have 6,000 growers in our system and we facilitate the cut flower trade in Turkey. The rose prices has especially gone up on this special day, 40 stems of roses were sold for 5 USD last week and this week it is sold for 15 – 18 USD.”
Source: Beyaz Gazete