Cut phalaenopsis growers in Antalya report that their sales have completely stopped due to the coronavirus.
Grower Kadir Erdem: “We will definitely close the season with a loss. The only sales activity we had in recent months was during Mother’s Day. We have a 6-hectare cut phalaenopsis greenhouse and most of our products are sold in Antalya and Istanbul.
Our products are mostly used in wedding decorations and in hotels however as wedding organizations came to a stop due to the coronavirus and the hotels operating at sub-optimal levels, we have no customers left for our products
We have started production in 2008 and our sales performance was very strong in recent years until we were hit by the impact of the virus outbreak. Annually we sell around 20,000 to 30,000 stems of cut phalaenopsis. Normally the vase life during winter months is around 4 to 6 weeks however during hot weather conditions such as now, the vase life is around 1 to 1.5 weeks. We are hoping to recoup some of our losses next season when markets hopefully normalize.”
Source: Milliyet