Economy Desk: Spring has arrived in the land of six seasons. Having said goodbye to winter, nature has become colorful. Valentine’s Day is associated with it. On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, the color of nature is in the minds of people of all classes and professions. Flowers have increased in value. “Flower”—this word of two letters softens the mind. And the flower market becomes commercialized based on the day. In the past few years, due to the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, the entire Bengali population was forced to postpone the celebration of the festival. So this year’s first celebration is a bit more solemn. And this year, the flower growers are hoping to make a profit after overcoming the losses due to Corona. Happy wholesalers and retailers too! They expect the flower market to reach Rs 500 crore this time, up from Rs 150 crore in February of previous years.
Of this, flowers worth at least 300 crore rupees were sold on Pahela Phalgun and Valentine’s Day. And the remaining flowers will be sold on February 21.
According to the information of the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing, Floriculture, and Cooperative Society, the flower market in the country is worth Tk 1600 crores throughout the year. Between January and April, 75 percent of total flower demand is met.However, with affiliates or link industries, the flower market is estimated to be worth more than 2,000 crores of rupees.On the other hand, despite the completion of the permanent flower market in the capital’s Gabtali, the Ministry of Agriculture is unable to provide electricity connections there. If this is resolved, shops will be allotted to traders. With that, it will be possible to prevent a maximum of 30 percent of flowers from rotting in modern facilities. Because of the quality issue, traders are unable to export to meet the country’s demand.For this, they have sought government policy support.
The flower wholesale markets at Gadkhali, Haria, and Panisara intersections of Jhikargacha in Jessore, the flower capital, have been bustling since the beginning of February. Farmer Hasibur said that the farmers got a good price for these flowers. However, although the profit rate seems high, the cost of production has not increased much. However, local farmers and traders are happy to get higher prices. This year, flowers were sold at three times higher prices than in other years. Roses are being sold at Tk 20–25 per piece in Jessore, which was Tk 5–10 last month. Similarly, gerbera costs 15-20, Rajnigandha costs 8, Gladiolus costs 8-12, and roses cost 8-12 at Rs.A thousand marigold flowers are sold for 500–700 taka.
Abdur Rahim, the former president of the Bangladesh Flowers Society, said that the size and quality of the flowers produced this time are good due to favorable weather conditions. Due to the absence of corona, traders from all over the country, including Dhaka, have started collecting flowers in advance. The price has also increased. According to the latest news, flowers have sold well across the country. Roses are sold locally for 25 taka, but in Dhaka they are sold for 50 taka or more. 100 is falling at the retail level. Not only Jessore, but good news is coming from 25 districts famous for flower production. Traders start collecting flowers on February 6 for Phalgun and Valentine’s Day. Preparations for February 21 are now underway.
However, traders said that plastic flowers are contributing to the demand for flowers in the country, which are beautiful but harmful to the environment. Its effect is considerable on other occasions as well. The demand for raw flowers is dwindling by the day.They demanded to stop the production and import of plastic flowers to protect the flower market.
Nikhil Chandra Dey, assistant director of the agriculture marketing department, said that the government is working for the florists and traders. The work of the project undertaken for the flower market in Gabtali, Dhaka, has been completed. Now there are complications related to power lines. On completion of this, the work of allotting stores will begin. This wholesale market will have modern processing machinery for selling flowers. This will cut down on flower waste.Apart from this, five processing centers have been set up in 25 commercial flower production districts. Businessmen are already seeing the benefits.
Regarding export, he said, the flower market is being worked on in stages. Now the local market is being given importance. However, the traders are interested in flower exports in the future, with an emphasis on quality. Information collection and awareness activities are ongoing at the field level.
