Tekin Ozyigit had migrated to the city of Antalya from his hometown Suruc, Sanliurfa due to economic reasons 15 years ago. He worked in various greenhouses in the city as a seasonal worker to earn a living and in time he learned more and more about the details of the greenhouse production process.
Mr. Ozyigit decided to set up his own greenhouses and borrowed from his friends and relatives for the seed investment. The grower first built a 1,500 square meter carnation greenhouse and built his name as a grower in the market place. Then after he built more greenhouses in his hometown Suruc and its neighboring district Birecik. Nowadays the grower is exporting his carnations to Europe and Russia through intermediaries.
Grower Ozyigit: “I was unemployed and had moved with my family to Antalya to work in the greenhouses. I worked a few years in other people’s greenhouses and then I rented a 1,500 square meter area to set up my own greenhouse. In time, I slowly increased my production capacity and now I have a total of 2.4 hectares of production area in 3 different districts. I’m currently employing 25 people in my greenhouses. The carnations we grow are all exported through exporting companies to Russia, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. I would like to export them by myself but for technical reasons, I am not allowed to do that. If government officials can assist me in that regard, I can start directly exporting by myself.”
Source: AA