SYRIFLOR - a breakthrough in Syrian FloricultureOur vision is to provide an infrastructure and approach that will integrate all the current resources and future potential of SYRIAN Floriculture stakeholders into a community
By: Tomagro International B.V. It is our aim to improve and strengthen the unity of the floriculture industry. We strive to create an environment for Syrian industry in which it will thrive and prosper as a major contributor to the economy and to the quality of life in Syria. We aim to reach across the industry to include Syrian greenhouse growers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers and importers/exporters all dealing with cut flowers, potted plants, bedding plants, cut flowers and specialty suppliers and services to the industry. SYRIFLOR aims to enhance the profitability and competitiveness of Syrian's floriculture industry by helping address common issues, challenges and opportunities to retain and enhance Syrian's preeminent position in the floriculture industry in the Middle East. Goals / Objectives Establish the highest quality production standards in the region allowing the industry to operate in a competitive regional marketplace. Be a respected voice with stakeholders including government. Increase consumer recognition of product and production excellence. Create an effective administrative and organizational infrastructure Create partnerships and affiliations with other likeminded organizations. The world trade of cut flowers runs into billions of dollars. Netherlands serves as the center of cut flower trade. Millions of flowers are traded through the auction houses in Netherlands. Major suppliers of fresh cut flowers to these auctions are Kenya, Columbia, Zimbabwe and Ecuador. Besides these four major suppliers, there are many other exporting countries as well. Syria has no significant share in the international trade of fresh cut flowers. Although, Syria has one of the most fertile agriculture lands, where excellent quality flowers can be produced, it is only producing low quality cut flowers that are sold locally and a small number is exported within the Middle East. A large number of fresh cut flowers are wasted due to mishandling and other related problems. For us the brand is very important, basically because it is the only tool for our customers to recognize our product consistently all over the world. Because of this we have decided to unify our brand to one SYRIFLOR Brand. This brand will use the best packing material in the market so we could do justice to the overall quality of the product. We have to position this brand and our product to be the best of the market. This work will include our customers’ cooperation (wholesalers, retailers, exporters) since they are the ones putting our brand all over the market and giving the important post sale service. So in order to compensate them we will work only with a few selected importers per country who share with us the importance of setting ourselves apart of the competition by doing things right from the start. Tomagro believes that a well-designed export strategy is the key to the development of an export-oriented floriculture industry in Syria. Therefore priority should be given to assist the growers in developing an export strategy for cut flowers. A special task force consisting of national experts will be set up for the formulation of the strategy under the technical guidance of Tomagro specialists. While preparing the strategy, the task force should analyze the supply capacity of cut flowers in Syria including its strengths and weaknesses, world’s demand and market opportunities for Syrian flowers especially in the neighbouring countries. A series of seminars and workshops will be held to discuss the recommended strategies. The strategy should aim at making Syria the largest flower production export base in the Middle East as a strategic goal for the Syria’s floriculture sector. While the sector will continue to base itself on the domestic market, special efforts will be made to expand its export to the neighbouring markets in the Middle East. For the first stage in this project, we will establish a modern greenhouse for the production of cut flowers. This greenhouse will serve three purposes: 1. Commercial production of cut flowers. We intend to produce two types of flowers in this greenhouse for sales in the local and regional markets. We will produce Dutch high quality flowers from Dutch plant material so that companies do not have to import from Holland, Ecuador, etc. in order to obtain high quality merchandise. Producing cut flowers locally will ultimately be more cost efficient in regards to both production costs and transportation costs. 2. Marketing – this greenhouse is effectively the cornerstone in our business plan. In order to effectively build a first quality brand in the region and to have enough production to benefit from economies of scale, we will expand to more greenhouse projects. By showing the commercial viability of such projects through this pilot project, we will be able to expand further through cooperation with local farmers, investors, banks and the Ministry of Agriculture. 3. Teaching. In addition to being a commercial greenhouse, we will use the facility to train local farmers so that as we expand to further project, farmers are proficient in their knowledge of modern greenhouse horticulture and are able to successfully manage the various aspects of the projects. For more information on this project please contact Tomagro Tomagro International B.V. Phone: +31 (0)10 405 2300 Mobile: +31 (0)64 199 4491 Fax: +31 (0)10 405 5106 Email: g.coutts@tomagro.nl Web: www.tomagro.nl # # # Tomagro International B.V. is dedicated to providing high quality products with first class service to our demanding international clientele. Established in the early nineties, our company today conducts business on a global scale. For many years we have been supplying our clients with the very best quality in Alstroemeria, Anthurium, Rose, Gerbera, Phalaenopsis, and other plants, as well as Fruit Tree Rootstocks. End
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