With the Covid-19 outbreak, while the borders were closing, Europe turned to nearby countries for the supply of flowers and plants. The limited trade from countries such as Colombia and Kenya, which are at the top in flower production in the world, has created an opportunity for Turkey. Turkish Flower sector representatives in Turkey state that Europe is closing the supply gap in flowers by sourcing from Turkey. The sector aims to export 125 million USD worth of flowers this year.
Board of the Ornamental Plants and Products Exporters Association Chairman Ismail Yilmaz: "The flower production is currently going well and the growers cannot meet the demand for exports. 50 % of the cut flower production goes to export. This rate is much lower for plants. The biggest item in exports is carnation. Cut flower prices have increased by 85 %compared to last year, and up to 15 % in plants.
107 million USD of exports were made to 83 countries last year. This year we set a target of 115 million USD in exports, but it seems that we will exceed 125 million USD. Our imports are at around 42 million USD. The biggest reason why we increased exports in the epidemic is the supply shortage in countries such as Colombia and Kenya, which are among the first in the world flower production. Europe has used Turkish flowers as an alternative sourcing option.
In this process, some of the producers turned from vegetables to flower production or there are some growers who made new investments to increase their production capacity. We expect the production areas to grow by 30 % next year. There is quite a lot of exports to countries such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan. Turkish construction companies are doing projects in Uzbekistan. We are sending landscape products to be used in the projects there."
Ornamental Plants Producers Sub-Union (SUSBIR) Chairman Ahmet Dundar: "Ornamental plants are also popular in the world. Ornamental plants have a lot of potential for exports and are a shining star in the agricultural sector. The exports of the floriculture sector in total, which had a trade deficit until 2 years ago, have already exceeded twice the imports.
As a sector, we want long-term land support and VAT rate to remain constant at 8 % for production. Approximately 500,000 are employed in the sector."
Antalya Commodity Exchange Chairman Ali Candir stated that the city has become the most important flower producer and exporter of Turkey. Candir said: “The growers from Antalya have great ambition and great potential in the production of flower and ornamental plants. However, it has problems regarding the production area. For this, we expect the inventory of the Treasury lands to be opened for production, The most important problem of flower exporters is cargo prices. Freight prices increased 2-2.5 times compared to the pre-epidemic times. We expect the shipping prices to decline to a reasonable level for the development of exports. The decrease in flights due to the epidemic has increased the prices of air cargo."
Source: Milliyet