With help from Holland, Tiraspol becomes Eastern Europe's new rose exporting capital

With technology from a Dutch partner, Pridnestrovie now forecasts a production of one million long-stemmed roses per year

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Just in time for Valentine's Day, a new "flower power" enters the market for red roses: the republic of Pridnestrovie and its capital, Tiraspol, is producing thousands of long-stemmed roses each day, with yearly output projected at one million roses for 2008.

The rose production facility in Tiraspol opened its doors late last year, starting production of roses based on Dutch technology. Under private ownership, the facility is already the largest supplier to the domestic market. Now, its products are being exported in a bid to put Pridnestrovie on the map and bring additional hard currency earnings into the unrecognized country.

The commercial production of “Holland Roses” has begun its development in Pridnestrovie (Transdniestria), at a high value agro-industrial facility on the outskirts of Tiraspol. Some twenty different types of roses are grown year round inside a climate controlled one-hectare area greenhouse, which was built with the assistance of Dutch technology partner “Boeters Greenhouseprojects, Ltd.”

The help from Holland has paid off: Western European experts, who organized this production inside Pridnestrovie, confirm that the level of automation of this project meets the highest quality standards. They believe that Pridnestrovie (also known as Transdniestria, or Transnistria in the Romanian language) is ideal for high-value production like roses, both due to its size, its native climate and the geographical location.

The twenty different types of roses mostly vary in the colors they come in, ranging from white and delicate pink to a deep burgundy. Nevertheless, the all have one thing in common: Extremely long stems, measuring between eighty centimeters to one meter in length. Long stemmed roses carry a premium on the international market, and these types of roses are in great demand on the market during any season.

More than 76,000 roses are currently cultivated at the same time. The future planes include a yearly cultivation of up to one million roses. Daily cut off comes to about 3500 flowers.

Hi-tech from Holland

Fully set up using advanced technology from Holland, the rose producing process is based on a fully automated system which ignores the seasons of the outside and is able to produce an identical amount of roses no matter what time of year. Water, used for sprinkling is extracted from the special well and is filtered automatically. In the irrigation room water is processed through the filters of rough and delicate cleaning, is cleaned from micro-structured soil elements, all indispensable fertilizers are added and afterwards the reviving water comes to the plants, which are planted out in a unique soil consisting of coconut slabs, delivered from Sri Lanka to Pridnestrovie.

The factory applies the trickle irrigation system, which allows using a small amount of water for sprinkling and the plant gets it all. At that, there is high humidity in the greenhouse, what flowers like.

Humidity, temperature and the level of lighting are detected by the sensors, which are installed in this greenhouse. The signals come to the main computer, which regulates all necessary characteristics. There are more systems connected to the climate computer such as the mist system and the air circulation fans, which are switched on automatically in case of need.

There is constant temperature during winter and summer in the greenhouse, and the lighting at night is the same as in the daytime. About 1 080 special lamps are installed under the glass ceiling of the rosary. The power of each lamp is 600 W. The lamps are used more frequent when the cold season comes and the days become shorter. The boiler of the Dutch company “Crone”, which has a capacity for two-hectares, heats the whole greenhouse in wintertime.

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