Global tender floated for flower bourse project’s feasibility study

AMMAN — Jordan will start exporting flowers in the near future, an official at the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) said, announcing that a “global” tender for consulting companies has been floated to implement a feasibility study about a flower-bourse project in the Kingdom.

The announcement came after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the GAM and the Dutch embassy Netherlands embassy in March to establish a bourse on the Airport Road, Anas Mahadin, the president of the central market, told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Mahadin said that the project aims to achieve GAM’s vision in establishing a convenient environment for farmers to enhance their businesses, and to give them the best opportunity to display and sell their products.

“It also aims at supporting the agricultural sector in any possible way, and at facilitating the customers’ experience by creating a ‘suitable’ place to view the merchandise,” he said, adding “it is like the central market, but for flowers”.

Mahadin noted that the municipality “seeks to make this project work at a regional level”.

“The objective of the feasibility study is to determine whether Jordan has the potential to implement this kind of a project or not, and whether it abides by the global standards for flower bourses,” he added.

An official at the Dutch embassy said that Netherlands, the world leader in the flowers bourse, is supporting the project. 

The embassy sees the potential of Jordan in building a “successful” flower-bourse and starting a “regional auction” for the Kingdom to export flowers.

Nimer Haddadin, the Ministry of Agriculture’s spokesperson, said: “This is a positive step, and it is also the first of its kind in the Middle East.”

“The ministry will play its role in enhancing and providing support to this project in every possible way”, he added.

Haddadin said that Jordan produces about 70 million flowers per year, and counts almost 2,500 greenhouses, in addition to some 70 flower farms, adding that Baqaa and the Jordan Valley are two of the most important locations for flower cultivation.