In a sprawling plant nursery near Thessaloniki in northern Greece, a Greek family is hard at work. They are preparing close to 150,000 poinsettias for distribution ahead of Christmas, both to local but mostly to foreign markets. Throughout the years, their poinsettia family business has grown and has turned into a competitive global exporter.
“It’s been three weeks since we started being so busy and every year, our orders become bigger,” Giorgos Albanidis, one of the owners of the business tells the Athens News Agency/Macedonian Press Agency in an interview. “These days for us are those with the most work and everything must be done right so we cannot let one minute go wasted so there are no loose ends left and we can . . . let go of our plants,” he adds.
Poinsettia, a popular Christmas symbol grown in Greece
Poinsettia (known as Alexandrino in Greek), the flowering plant that is a Christmas symbol around the world, decorates thousands of homes and businesses during the holiday season. Albanidis says this year most of their plants are going to Romania while many countries across the Balkans choose their poinsettias because, as he says, they have an early production. “The climate and our facilities favor the development of the plants,” Albanidis says. He further explains that Greeks choose exclusively red poinsettias (in some religious communities the shape of the poinsettia flower is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem with the red leaves symbolizing the blood of Christ) while “Europeans seem to prefer pink, speckled and even white.”
Growing poinsettias is no easy task. “The (plant) needs extra care, we are constantly over it, if one gets sick the rest will get sick too, so you can imagine what will happen,” Giorgos Albanidis explains. The growing process begins in the beginning of July and it involves a lot of hard and continuous work, especially during the summer months in order for the plant to reach its current stage before distribution.
How the Greek poinsettia family business became major exporter
In the 1990s, brothers Anestis and Kostas Albanidis started a small plant nursery in Anchialos, outside the northern city of Thessaloniki. It only had a few chrysanthemums and when the first strong wind blew everything was destroyed. The two brothers didn’t give up. In the years that followed, the nursery grew and today it spans 30 acres while another 50 acres are used for outdoor planting. The two brothers asked their children, Giorgos and Panagiotis, who have graduated from the American Farm School in Thessaloniki to become part of the business.
Representing the younger generation, Giorgos and Panagiotis say that besides their studies, spending time at their fathers’ nurseries gave them the experience to become competitive, even against the largest markets in the world, like that of the Dutch.
“We are competing against all countries around us in quality, price but also in terms of transport. There’s nothing to be jealous about compared to the Dutch, who do have advanced technology and their own plants so we cannot compete in terms of production loads, but regarding our plants we are competitive and want to become better every year,” the two brothers told the Athens News Agency/Macedonian Press Agency.
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