Iran has great potential to export flowers to regional nations if authorities help producers address their problems, an official said.
Jalal Ajayebi, chairman of the Association of Tehran Flower and Plant Producers, said the flower market in Iran is “far from satisfactory” now as the domestic market is faced with high supply and low demand. He attributed the reason to the lowered purchasing power of people as well as the cold season coming up, as reported by Tasnim on Wednesday.
“If Iran targets regional markets like Central Asia and Arab countries, it would save the industry since our flowers have good quality,” he added.
As a precondition for a rise in exports, Ajayebi suggested that officials run what he called a flower export terminal – a project that was set to be conducted in Kish Island in 2008 with the aim of facilitating flower exports.
Eighty percent of the flower terminal construction has now been completed, he said. The project was halted after the budget was abruptly cut.
More than two billion fresh cut flowers are produced in Iran each year, less than 10 percent of which, however, are exported, according to Khorasan daily.
Earlier, Mohammad Hassanvali, CEO of the association, characterized Iran as a country with favorable climate conditions to produce a variety of flowers. “The depreciation of the rial against the dollar can provide a good chance for Iranian flower exporters, who can now easily make profit in global markets,” he said.
Tehran, Markazi, Mazandaran, and Khuzestan province are leading flower producers.
