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Lessee resp. for excess wear and tear. 150 per mile over 12,000 per year. To get total obligation multiply term by paymt. Glassman Aurora Telegraph • At The Tel-12 Mall • Southfield 1-800.354-5558 810-354-3300 CER BENEFIT A cocktail party to raise funds for Nick Usherenko, whose surgery and treatment for his rare form of cancer will create enormous burdens for him, will be sponsored by Don's Salon (where his wife Luda is employed) in Applegate Square on Northwestern Hwy in Southfield on Sunday, June , between 4 and 7 p.m. For those unable to attend the event, contributions may be made to the Nick Usherenko Medical Fund and mailed to Don's Salon at 29967 Northwestern Hwy, Southfield, MI 48034. For further information, call the Salon at (248) 358-2722. Some of the members of the committee involved with the benefit include Janice Cutler, Cheryl Chodun, Karen and Dr. Brent Davidson, Paulette Freedman, Laurel and Charles Gabe, Jill Leib, Gail and Ira Mondry, Sandy and Dr. Neal Mozen, Joanne and Dr. Micha& Rowe, Verne and Dr Edward Royal, Sandy, Gary and Lisa Scholnick, Bluma Siegal, Edie and Donald Slotkin and Sharon Smith. 1960s and '70s, the FBI built up an effective and relatively cheap system to get flowers to market on time. Every day a refrigerat- ed truck visits the farms, takes the flowers to a regional packing house where they are packed and sorted and then sent on, again by refrigerated truck, to Agrexco's air terminal where they are flown out on the same day. From field to market, the process takes about two days. Flower producers have also de- veloped ways to keep their prod- ucts fresh over a longer period of time. The Israeli rose a British man buys his sweetheart on Valentine's Day was probably picked five days earlier. Treat it well at home and it will last an- other 10 days. This is an area Eu- ropean producers neglect because they are just two hours away from their market. This, however, is only a tem- porary gain. "South Africa and South America may have a prob- lem with logistics, but they'll solve it," warns Mr. Frank. These countries have also focused on a longer shelf-life for their prod- ucts. Assortment is the next weapon. Israel has begun to specialize in new varieties. Apart from growing European summer flowers during the win- ter, Israel has begun to special- ize in new varieties and breeds. These include wild flowers tak- en from New Zealand, Hawaii, Mexico or the Australian bush and adapted in Israel for the do- mestic market. The new breeds, many of which were brought to Israel by the FBI, include anigozanthos and leucadendron. Flowers are cleaned and select- ed genetically, a process which takes some years. New varieties have their risks, however, as Mr. Frank is all too aware. He has tried out a num- ber of new varieties including anigozanthos and allium, a wild flower from Israel. Sometimes the flowers work, sometimes they don't. "It takes at least five or six years to commercialize a product and there are no guarantees," he complains. "Even those that do work might not prove lasting. The life of a product used to be five to six years, now it's two to three. If a new flower sells well in the first year, then more breed- ers try it out the next. By the third year the market is often glutted and prices fall. It's risky, but we have no choice." A development that has alarmed him is the news that some flower growers have stopped investing in different va- rieties because of financial diffi- culties. "We need to change our varieties every year if we want to survive," he says. "If growers decide not to invest, things will get worse. We won't be able to compete and survival is unlike- ly." He believes it is time the gov- ernment stepped in and gave farmers an injection of money to help them bear the cost of this in- vestment. For companies which have the means to do so, the answer to all this uncertainty is to spread the risk. A few years ago, Bickel Flowers bought a biotechnology company, now called Bickel Biotechnology International (BBI). Set up as a laboratory for tissue culture plants, it initially sold flowers as well as fruit and vegetables. Today, however, the flowers are gone. 'We've moved away from flow- ers and are now selling vegetable or industrial crops," says Neta Levy, BBI's general manager. "The flower market is doing bad- ly. I can't compete." Mr. Levy believes the flower market is failing because "basic needs come first. There's a greater demand for food and less money to spend on flowers, even in Europe," he says. Bickel Flowers is now pinning its hopes on a new seedless toma- to developed by BBI. The com- pany anticipates that sales of the crop will soon leapfrog parent company sales. Bickel is also diversifying into real estate and is now moving from its old offices near Ra'anana. Earlier plans to set up a joint-venture farm in Jordan have been put on hold as a result of the faltering peace process. Not all flower growers can af- ford to diversify, however, and the FBI is exploring alternate op- tions. In Europe there is a trend of buying flowers at the super- market. Most of these are at the medium- to low-quality standard. "I believe there's a place for high- quality flowers," says Mr. Haaze. It is an area he is developing vig- orously. Another area sure to find fa- vor in ecologically-aware Europe is environmentally friendly flow- ers, i.e. flowers that have not been treated with pesticides or chemicals. A highly successful experiment is now being under- taken in the Negev. "We can do it; I don't know if the Kenyans and Ecuadorians can," says Mr. Haaze. The Israeli government has also woken up to the problems farmers face and is now in the process of introducing a long- term loan system which will help farmers who want to invest in new technology and new vari- eties. Whether this will be enough remains to be seen. ❑ (c) Jerusalem Post 1997 `-\