The investment in accurate and high speed automation, confirms that the Turkish nursery industry is not reluctant to invest in automation and high end technology to improve day to day processes. Even in times that the domestic greenhouse sector is under pressure as a result of the Russian embargo.
According to Ertan Gonca, general manager at Izmir Fide, this is the result of their continuous commitment to quality improvement. "The market can be under pressure and growers might receive lower prices for their produce. Yet, all of them are aware of the fact that good starting material can make the difference. Therefore growers still demand quality young plants."
José Carretero of Flier Systems and Ertan Gonca of Izmir Fide sealed the deal for the purchase of the DSII Drum Seeder at the recent Growtech Eurasia exhibition in Antalya.
Gonca explained that automation is key for his nursery to meet the quality demanded by Turkish growers. "When we founded our business four years ago, we made a certain commitment and had a goal to provide our customers with uniform, quality young plants, all year round. In order to achieve such quality, it is important to use technology that allows you to seed precise, accurate and at a constant pace and quality. Therefore we invest in automation, not just because of the cost of labor, but moreover because computers and machines are more accurate than people and greatly contribute to the quality of the end product."
Izmir Fide operates 18 hectares of nursery in which they propagate both vegetable and ornamental young plants. For their annual production of 75 million seedlings, the nursery uses a variety of automation, from self developed track, record and analysis software towards in-house irrigation booms and accompanied programs. The advanced Drum Seeder from Flier Systems is a logical addition to their production line. "The biggest costs of a young plant is the seed", said Gonca. "Quality does not only start with the right seed or variety, but also with an accurate machine that fills the trays in the most proper way."
The Drum Seeder DS11 has been designed for extremely accurate sowing at high speeds of both pelleted and naked seeds. Thanks to the design of the drum and adjustable vacuum, the seeds are well separated, resulting in much-improved sowing results. As a result, various types of seed types no longer need to be pelleted in order to achieve a proper sowing result, which in many cases generates considerable cost savings. Sowing multiple seeds per cell is also possible. For Izmir Fide this is a welcome future, as they often produce herb and flower seedlings.
"The seeder from Flier Systems is really flexible", concluded Gonca. "You can precisely seed multiple seeds at the same time with the same drum." Furthermore Gonca stressed out that the seeder is this precise that he does no longer need people to check the seeding process. "With our previous machine we had 3-4 people checking the cells at all times. This is no longer needed, which saves us huge amounts of time and money."
Izmir Fide is a- 4 years old- young company, that focuses on quality on long-term relations. "We start our quality maintaining process not only with the product itself but also with its marketing and fulfill the customer satisfaction with after-sales support & services" said Gonca. "Aside of this socialy close relations with our customers and industry relations are at the top of our minds. Therefore we organize special activities like a table-tennis tournament, which is organized by us for the 4th time this year. It gathers 40 companies with 68 participants to compete in the tournament which takes around 2 months with 196 matches. For next year, we plan to enlarge our organization to an international level, inviting our industry friends from abroad to join the tournament. Also Flier Systems is invited to join us. The tournament is organized with the valued support of sponsors Yuksel Tohum, Vilmorin, Seminis (Agrikem) and Golden Seeds (Altin Tohum)."
For more information:Flier Systems
José Carretero
j.carretero@fliersystems.nl
www.fliersystems.com