Sakarya, a city located in northwestern Turkey, is second in terms of the growing area of ornamental and outdoor plants. The plants from this city are not only decorating parks and green areas in Turkey but also other countries.
The industry first emerged years ago in Sapanca and Arifiye districts with the initiative of women and nowadays 40,000 people in the city earn their livelihood from this industry.
Sakarya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SATSO) Chairman Akgün Altug: “This city is an important production area for both industrial and agricultural production. Our city is especially well known for ornamental and outdoor plant production. The biggest outdoor plant growers in the country are in Sakarya and the production area in Sakarya for outdoor and ornamental plants is approximately 1,100 hectares.
A lot of companies used to import trees, ornamental plants, and seedlings from abroad but now thanks to the improvement of our growers, we have become exporters in this area. Our growers from the city have exported products worth 1.5 million USD to neighboring countries. Our growers are also market leaders in the domestic market. Our goal is to increase exports even more.
This industry creates a lot of jobs and our country is especially strong in fresh flower production. Almost 90 % of the production are cut flowers and overall Turkey is ranked 12th globally in the growing area of flowers and plants.
Our country has exported around 90 million USD worth of flowers and plants in 2018. Considering the size of the growing areas in the country, this figure is actually low and can be improved significantly. Our competitors are growers from the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy and they contribute significantly to their national economy. Our goal is to be able to compete with growers from these countries in time. We know this is a 6 – 7 billion USD industry in the Netherlands. Our growers are slowly improving their competitive position. Sakarya growers are more focused on outdoor plant production and their products are used in many landscaping projects and municipality green areas in Istanbul and Ankara.
Last year, we have organized a Landscape and Ornamental Plants Festival in Sakarya and as SATSO we will continue supporting this industry. We have also founded a Tissue Culture Lab in the city to improve the industry and to grow seeds needed by our growers. “
Aytekin Karan, a representative for a grower in Erenler district with a growing area of 60 hectares, pointed out Turkey’s beneficial position as a bridge between Europe and Asia. Aytekin Karan: “ Ornamental plant production is not about technological and qualified production, it is about putting your heart in this business. I believe that everyone in this industry has a mission to lower the imports and reduce the dependency on products coming from abroad. That’s why all growers need to grow products to fulfill market demand. That was our focus as a company when we first started and now we are even able to export products abroad. Our hope is that we will be able to lower ornamental plant imports to almost zero and become a major exporting country in this industry.”
Source: AA