The queen of orchids blooms amidst poverty and natural destruction

• Report rights infringement
• published: 23 Jul 2015
• views: 82

The cattleya orchid. It's a welcome beauty in a land crushed by poverty and natural disaster. Antoine Assali, or Toni as he prefers to be called, is a Haitian of Lebanese descent. He's achieved the unexpected with his orchid-export business. It's nestled in a 14,000 square metre property in the valley of Kenscoff just outside the capital Port-au-Prince. Inside the nursery, his 28 employees organised in day and night shifts, tend to the growing of the cattleya. Although there are 25-thousand types of cattleya this beautiful bloom is considered to be the queen of the orchids. Of delicate colours and light fragrance the flower can grow up to 8 inches (20.3 cm) across. Assali says the flowers were his passion long before they become a source of income. "My ancestors from my father's side have been textile importers since the end of the 19th century, quite big ones. I took over my father's business, but since the economy, importing, and trading in the capital started not doing too well, I can't say they were falling apart, but let's just say businesses wasn't doing great. I decided to start a business around what has always been a great passion of mine: orchid collecting. Since I was a teenager I have been very interested in this flower, you know, we are born with passions and we don't know why, like Bach was born with a passion for music," he says. With a bold strategy for a young man - he was 25 years old at the time - Assali borrowed money, bought some land without even having a partner in the US and finally secured a deal with a New Jersey company. The Kenscoff valley benefits from a cool micro climate, far away from the heat, excessive humidity and pollution of the capital, which makes it ideal to cultivate this kind of orchid. Cattleyas are short-lived and they demand a lot of work, but they benefit from a loyal fan base. These are the ones used as accessories, in buttonholes, as well as used in funerals and marriages. It is this kind of orchid which sticks in the mind of the public," says Assali. "There are really big orchid producers in the world, like Thailand, which is the largest exporter of orchid clusters in the world. We produce something different. The difference between these orchids is that the Cattleya require a cool climate to grow. It must be around 16 - 17 degrees Celsius (60.8 - 62.6 Fahrenheit) at night and no more that 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) during the day, and here we have the ideal climate to grow these orchids," he adds. In the 60s, when Assali began to export cattleyas to the US, flowers in general and orchids in particular were a common accessory in women's fashion. During those golden times, Assali sent 2 shipments a week to a flower broker in Miami. Nowadays that's reduced to just one a week. But Assali's orchids have not fallen victim to fashion or indeed global circumstance. For 26 years this entrepreneur guided his business through the end of the Duvalier family dictatorship in Haiti, a military junta, an economic embargo, the turbulent 90s and the first decade of the 21st century which has seen political and social turmoil. Every week Assali and his workers cut and meticulously package the delicate cattleyas in boxes before driving to the international airport to pack their load safely off to Miami. Port-au-Prince is not very far from Kenscoff, the rim of mountains surrounding the capital. The road is uneven to say the least and if caught in traffic the 15 kilometre (9.3 mile) journey between Assali's property and the airport can take up to an hour or more. Power cuts, lack of infrastructure and difficulties repairing equipment are the main challenges he faces in his everyday work. But that is still in the future. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/e354721252103f97a4cb894d436aa6bd Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork