With TT being awarded a gold medal at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show in London by the Royal Horticultural Society, team leader Anthony Tang Kai and corporate communications for the team Franka Philip appealed to the relevant authorities to see the business aspect of it and how it can boost our economy in its own way.
Tang Kai said while exhibiting their display This Our Native Land, many people asked them about a supply of the local flowers, plants and tropical fruits displayed in the piece. The team’s design was done by the late Bernard Beckles who died on May 3, two weeks before the competition.
Beckles was a florist and owner of La Tropicale Flower Shop, Patna Trace, St James and was responsible for the local floral pieces for ministers and even late presidents like ANR Robinson.
The team was made up of Tang Kai, Simone Taylor, Melissa Lee Foon, Andre Crawford, Shane Valentine and Neave McKenzie.
Tang Kai said, “They saw it and they fell in love with it. It is not something that you can just go and plant out in your backyard. You would have to have a conservatory.”
How flowers and plants can be an industry
Philip, who Tang Kai described as the “corporate backbone” of their team, said, “I think it is really important for people to understand the opportunity that this (the gold medal) gives TT from a business perspective. People who see the plants are interested in them so that gives us visibility and it gives us an opportunity to be a part of that wider plant and floral industry.”
She said TT imports a lot of foreign plants and though that caters to people’s tastes here, sees the need to expose them to the local flowers as a way of reducing imports and gaining foreign exchange through the exports.
Tang Kai added that there needs to be a balance when it comes to the importation of flowers. In 2013, TT imported US$923,981 worth of fresh flowers and live plants from Colombia compared to 2021 in which the imports stood at US$576,650 as reported by the UN Comtrade database on international trade.
He said at one point in time in the late 80s, TT was exporting topical cut flowers to the foreign market, but the numbers dwindled seeing as though there was no more access to direct airlifts to the importing countries.
Tang Kai said this is a still a problem to date and it should not be, especially when trying to export within the Caricom.
He asked the relevant authorities, “How do we strengthen our local partners in terms of how best do we make things to import?”
Philip added, “I think we need to be probably a little more assertive in the way that we put ourselves out there with regards to horticulture and forestry, so that we can start rallying producers to grow for a foreign market. I think that’s really important.”
Tang Kai said aside from boosting production, there needs to be more garden tours like that of other countries.
[caption id="attachment_1020131" align="alignnone" width="819"] TT flower display This Our Native Land designed by the late Bernard Beckles. -[/caption]
“Unfortunatel
