TEHRAN- The lack of an air transport system for flowers export is one of the most important challenges in Iran’s export of flowers and ornamental plants, according to the chairman of Flower Retailers' Association of Tehran.

“The lack of an air transport system for flower export is one of the most important challenges in this sector, so sometimes a passenger plane is used if the space is empty”, Gholam-Hossein Soltan-Mohammadi said, adding, “In general, sending flowers from the place of production to the final consumer is a relatively long and complicated path; Because sending cut flowers has its own subtleties that are still neglected in our country.”

He named factors such as high air freight rates, problems related to ground transportation from the cultivation site, and terminal, problems related to adjusting the production and transportation schedule, and as a result, lack of timely research of the product according to the need of the customer, as well as the individual entry of Iranian exporters to global markets and the lack of recognition of export target markets as some other main difficulties in the export of flowers and ornamental plants.

Iran has 17th place in the world in the production of flowers and ornamental plants, but it is ranked 107th in terms of export.

Every year, three billion flowers and ornamental plants are produced in the country, of which only 300 million are exported. 50 percent of the produced flowers are sold domestically and the rest is thrown away.

As said by Soltan-Mohammadi, flowers and ornamental plants consumption per capita in Iran is 20, while the figure is 150 to 250 in the world.

“We must have mass production to reduce the price of flowers”, he has stated.

According to him, to produce flowers and ornamental plants for export, it should be considered as an industry and the demands of target companies should be evaluated.

MA/MA