Mahallat Earns Over $20m From Export of Flowers, Plants

A total of $20.93 million worth of goods have been exported from Mahallat, a county in Markazi Province of Iran, since the beginning of the current Iranian year on March 21, according to Mohammad Jamal-Abbasi, a local official.
Kazakhstan, Iraq, Turkey, India, the UAE, Vietnam, Pakistan, Romania, Bulgaria, Kenya and Malaysia were the main destinations, IRNA reported.
Flowers and plants had the lion’s share of the exports ($12.5 million). 
About 80 years ago, Yahakhan, a man from Mahallat who had learnt all about the art of floriculture from his Dutch foreman in Tehran, came back to his hometown to turn Mahallat into Iran’s city of flowers. After years of hard work, the floriculture has expanded exponentially.
Pleasant weather, good average monthly temperature and fertile lands have made it an exemplar city in Iran to cultivate diverse flowers from the usual species to rare ones, including chrysanthemums, gladiolus, daisy, rose,  tuberose, cactus, dianthus and iris.
According to the official, Mahallat is the main hub of ornamental fish breeding in Iran and produces the widest range of ornamental fish species.
Mahallat is also noted for its decorative stone production. There are 70 active stone mines in the county that possesses 30 million tons of mineral reserves. Some 2 million tons are extracted annually. 
Over 2% of the world’s construction and travertine stones are produced in Mahallat. Some 280 processing units, with a capacity of 18 million square meters of stone, are active there. However, the county has registered no stone exports this year.