World Horti Center Webinar & Virtual Tour for Iranian stakeholders
The fourth webinar organized this year by the agricultual section of the Netherlands Embassy in Iran on horticulture.
On 17 November, The Netherlands Embassy in Tehran held its fourth and final 2020 horticulture webinar series with World Horti Center (WHC). This webinar included a virtual ‘walking’ tour of WHC and talks by Hans Smolders of the Netherlands Embassy, Alireza Naraghipour of the Iranian Embassy in The Hague, Gert Stiekema (Manager Topsector Horticulture and Starting Materials), Mark Zwikels, (Director International of WHC), and last but not least presentations by Dennis Flaton (HortiXS) and Pim van Adrichem (Hortitech).
This webinar proved to be our most successful received and well virtual event so far, with nearly 70 participants taking part from mostly Iranian private and public sectors. The importance of cooperation between the research institutions with business and government bodies in a tripartite model of sector development, as modeled by WHC, was a central theme of this webinar. WHC has signed a number of MoUs for the design and development of similar WHCs in other parts of the world, including in Mexico, Iraq Kurdistan, and four centers in China.
After the webinar it was mentioned by many participants that such a center in Iran should be seriously considered. Of course for sometime The Netherlands Embassy - in conjunction with its horticulture partners in the NL, Dutch Sprout and WHC – has worked towards this goal and hopes to make this idea a reality in the not too distant future in Iran.