After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a great activity started in the cut flower sector in Antalya and Isparta. After Queen Elizabeth passed away on September 8, the Royal Family set up a 10-day program of mourning and burial. In this context, especially for funeral rites EnglandThere is a demand increase of up to 80-90 percent in the cut flower demand from Antalya to Antalya.
THE PERIOD WHERE PRODUCTION WAS TOO LITTLE
Harvest takes place in November-June in Antalya, which ranks first in Turkey in cut flower production. In the period between June and November, this gap in the 12-month uninterrupted production process is filled with the productions in Isparta, which is described as a plateau region. The death of Queen Elizabeth also coincided with the last period of the plateau production in the Isparta region.
ENGLISH DEMANDS RANK FIRST
Since the harvest period in the greenhouses in Antalya will start in November, although there is a high demand from England at the moment, companies cannot keep up with the orders due to the lack of products. During this period, the sector that exported cut flowers to England with TIRs on a 7-8-day journey; With the death of the Queen, she started to send her shipments by plane daily, as her shipments were faster. While companies increased the number of workers and working hours, England took the first place in cut flower exports.
ORDER AFTER NEWS OF DEATH
Selçuk Çelebi, a member of the Antalya Commodity Exchange (ATB) Assembly and the Cut Flowers and Ornamental Plants Professional Committee, said that on the evening of September 8, they started receiving extra flower orders from their customers in England with the news of the Queen’s death. Çelebi said, “It is stated that the national mourning and funeral program that will take place in the country will last for 10 days. However, there is no cut flower production in Antalya in the current period, while the plateau production in Isparta is decreasing.”
PLANE INSTEAD OF TRAILER
Selçuk Çelebi said that while it was having difficulties in making flower shipments with normal weekly contracts, England was placed in the first place in the cut flower sector with new orders to the shipment program, and said, “We have converted our products, which will be shipped by TIR, to airplane shipments, as of this week, due to the funeral. While driving, they will have it the next day by plane,” he said.
‘WE SEND CLOTHES OF EVERY COLOR’
Expressing that there was an 80-90 percent increase in cut flower orders with the death of Queen Elizabeth, Çelebi said, “However, we are trying to meet 40-50 percent of this order increase due to our production gap this period. “We expect this activity to continue for about a month, apart from the 10-day program,” he said.
Noting that cut flower producers in Antalya and Isparta send a significant amount of flowers to the Netherlands in addition to their direct exports to England, Çelebi said that their customers in the Netherlands also sent their Turkish flowers to England for the funeral.
NUMBER OF WORKERS AND WORKERS INCREASED
Rabia Yıldırım, agricultural engineer in charge of quality control and warehouse at Çiçek Company, said that while they normally apply a 8-hour work schedule due to the low production period in the highland region, they had to increase both the working hours and the number of workers after the death of the Queen. Yıldırım stated that during this process, they decided to work 2 hours a day and work on Sundays, 11-18 September. Yıldırım noted that the capacity of 30 workers was increased to 45.
İsmail Yılmaz, Chairman of the Central Anatolian Ornamental Plants and Products Exporters’ Association, stated that Isparta, which is expressed as a plateau, closed its deficit between June and November in the hot summer period of Antalya, and said:
“We also ensure that our production period is carried out for 12 months. Most of the production areas in Isparta are made up of producers from Antalya. There is a production capacity of 250 million branches in total on an area of 2 thousand decares in Isparta. Normally, during this period, we send 600-700 thousand flowers to the British market per week. , With the death of Queen Elibazeth, we estimate that this number will reach at least 1.5 million branches during the funeral ceremony. There is a significant increase in demands from England. Currently, we have clove-based production in the production in the highland. After the funeral and mourning program, we estimate for a certain period of time. We expect this activity to continue.”
