TEHRAN- Khuzestan province, in the southwest of Iran, can be a hub of flowers and ornamental plants production in the country, the deputy governor-general of the province for the economic affairs stated.

Aqa-Reza Fotouhi pointed out that Khuzestan province has a high potential due to the climate and restated that it can be a hub of the cultivation of flowers and ornamental plants in the country.

“And also, in terms of exports, due to being neighbor to the Persian Gulf littoral states as well as Iraq (which are some major export destinations of Iran’s flowers and ornamental plants), Khuzestan can play an effective role in boosting the export in this due, and it can create good employment as well”, the official further noted.

As reported, Iraq, the Persian Gulf littoral states, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Azerbaijan are among the major importers of flowers and ornamental plants from Iran.

Statistics show that in the last 20 years, the demand for buying ornamental flowers has been increasing worldwide.

It has taken a growing trend inside Iran as well, so that the cultivation of flowers and ornamental plants has expanded appreciably and the number of production units has now reached 15,000.

In the past, Mahalat city, in central Markazi province, was considered the hub of the flower production in Iran, but now other important cities have been added to Mahalat.

Tehran province is one of the largest cities with 3,200 production units in the cultivation of cut flowers and seasonal flowering plants, Mazandaran province with the cultivation of apartment plants and plants for green spaces, Mahalat city in the cultivation of flowering plants and cut flowers, and the provinces of Isfahan, Kerman, Khorasan and East Azarbaijan are ranked next.

Iran has the 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 stated by the chairman of Flower Retailers' Association of Tehran, 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”, Gholam-Hossein Soltan-Mohammadi 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